The Influence of Submission Devices on User-Generated Content: A New Study by Prof.
Madlberger and Dr. Wolf
Prof. Maria Madlberger, Head of the Business and Management Department at Webster
Vienna Private University collaborated with Dr. Lukas Wolf from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität
Erlangen-Nürnberg on a research study titled The Influence of Submission Devices on
User-Generated Content – A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis. This study
has been accepted for publication in the journal International Journal of Consumer
Studies.
The paper investigates the impact of submission devices – mobile devices such as smartphones
and tablets, and non-mobile devices like laptops or PCs – on the creation and characteristics
of User-Generated Content (UGC). While mobile and non-mobile devices share many functional
similarities, they differ in screen size, user interface, and usage context, factors
which can shape how users interact with content creation tools.
The authors conducted a systematic literature review, offering a structured overview
of existing research by analyzing relevant theories, contexts, and methodologies.
A subsequent weight analysis and meta-analysis examined the strength and combined
effect sizes of relationships studied across the literature, as well as moderators
that explain variations in results.
Key findings indicate that mobile devices, compared to non-mobile devices, have a
moderate negative effect on temporal distance, text length, and content diversity
in UGC. These insights clarify inconsistencies in prior studies and confirm the robustness
of certain device-related effects. For example, the submission device plays a major
role in factors that are influencing review helpfulness, but it does not affect helpfulness
itself. The study calls for further research on understanding the role of situational
factors of UGC creation as well as impacts on product sales.
The paper also provides practical recommendations for managers, emphasizing the need
to adapt marketing strategies to the unique characteristics of content created on
different digital devices. To encourage the submission of effective reviews, companies
may encourage UGC submission via non-mobile devices.
Forthcoming Book Chapter on Institutional Leadership in Strategic Management by Professors
Vitaliano A. Barberio and Alessandro Lomi
Prof. Vitaliano A. Barberio from the Business and Management Department at Webster
Vienna Private University, in collaboration with Prof. Alessandro Lomi from the Faculty
of Economics at the University of Lugano, have authored a book chapter titled Institutional
Leadership as Discursive Practice. The chapter will appear in the forthcoming volume
Tradition: Resource or Constraint? Rediscovering the Role of Tradition in Organizations,
part of the ASTM: Advances in Strategic Management series (Volume 44).
The chapter examines how institutional leadership candidates navigate the tension
between tradition and innovation through strategic use of language during competitive
rituals. Using an electoral contest for the position of Rector at one of Europe’s
oldest universities as a case study, the paper analyzes how candidates position their
leadership claims within the organization’s issue space, shaped by institutional and
technical values.
The study employs topic modeling and correspondence analysis to map candidates' positions
in relation to their electoral programs. Content analysis with predefined dictionaries
further reveals how candidates strategically frame their discourse, blending appeals
to tradition and innovation to resonate with diverse constituencies. The findings
highlight that even candidates in similar structural positions within the issue space
construct distinct narratives, emphasizing different paths to balance organizational
change with institutional values. The book is currently in its final stages of preparation
and will be published soon.
Barberio, V., & Lomi, A. (forthcoming). Institutional leadership as discursive practice.
In G. Cattani, S. Ferriani, & I. Sasaki (Eds.), Tradition: Resource or constraint?
Rediscovering the role of tradition in organizations (Advances in Strategic Management series, Vol. 44). Emerald Publishing Limited.
October
Beyond Competitiveness: Is Productivity Everything? – A New Study by the Team of Professors:
Antonakakis, Workie and Fisera
A recent study by Prof. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Prof. Menbere Workie, and Prof. Boris
Fisera, accepted for publication in the Review of Development Economics, investigates
the roles of competitiveness and productivity in predicting economic growth. The paper,
titled Beyond Competitiveness: Is Productivity Everything?, provides insights into
the relative importance of these factors in fostering growth, particularly as economies
converge towards the global technological frontier.
The study utilizes a panel dataset of 62 countries spanning 2007 – 2019 and applies
the local projections (LP) method to assess the predictive power of the Global Competitiveness
Index (GCI) and productivity. The findings reveal that while both higher productivity
and GCI are associated with greater economic growth over a five-year horizon, productivity
demonstrates a stronger predictive capability than GCI. This divergence is attributed
to the concept of "productivity beyond competitiveness," where the GCI, unlike productivity,
fails to capture critical growth determinants in advanced economies nearing the technological
frontier.
The authors further analyze the factors contributing to "productivity beyond competitiveness"
and identify financial development, institutional quality, and specific cultural traits
as key drivers. These findings suggest that economies can sustain productivity growth
– and by extension, economic growth – through these determinants, even when competitiveness
indices may no longer fully reflect their growth potential.
This study examines the significant inflationary spike in Slovakia during the post-Covid-19
pandemic period (2021 – 2023), contrasting with the earlier era of low growth and
low inflation. The authors use an adjusted input-output price model to quantify the
contributions of various factors, including production costs, imported consumption,
and corporate profits, to the rising consumer price inflation in Slovakia. Their findings
indicate that excessive corporate mark-ups, rising input prices, and imported inflation
were major drivers of the inflationary surge during this period.
The paper provides broader critical insights for policymakers by highlighting the
structural weaknesses within small and open economies, especially their dependency
on external factors such as food imports, which contributed significantly to rising
inflation. It suggests that addressing these inflationary pressures will require targeted
policies aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of rising costs on real income and
overall economic stability.
Reference: Hojdan, D., & Tiruneh, M. W. (2024). What drives inflation in times of
weak economic recovery? Disentangling the sources of recent inflationary spike in
Slovakia. Ekonomický časopis/Journal of Economics, 72(3-4), 140-168.
August
Prof. Dr. Vitaliano Barberio Joins Webster Vienna
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Vitaliano Barberio has joined the Business and
Management Department at Webster Vienna Private University. Dr. Barberio’s scholarly
work delves into the mechanisms of using language strategically to legitimize organizational
change, acquire resources for new ventures, and establishing the structure of nascent
fields.
In his most recently published work*, with his co-authors, Dr. Barberio has explored
how the leaders of the main British political parties – e.g., Labours and Tories –
have used language to legitimize the progressive hybridization of the parties’ ideological
identities. Over the last 60 years, in response to the decline of ideology, these
parties have increasingly converged towards the center of the political landscape
and in doing so started to incorporate in their manifestos a set of claims that used
to belong to their opponents -e.g., the Conservatives claiming for welfare expansion
etc. The study shows that party leaders relied on specific linguistic styles -e.g.,
emotional vs. rational – in subsequent stages of the hybridization process characterized
by different strategic needs. The study also shows that the use of the “appropriate”
language in inward communications favored the success of certain oppositional claims
as their appearance in outwards projections of identity – e.g., electoral manifestos.
In his currently under development research, Dr. Barberio studies how different linguistic
styles might explain differentials in the funding performance of Kickstarter campaigns.
This study also tries to explain whether the same linguistic styles produce different
outcomes depending on the level of experience of the entrepreneurs creating the campaign.
Preliminary results of this research show that “passionate” language generally associates
with better financial performance of campaigns, but in the case of serial entrepreneurs
– those who have launched several new ventures on the platform – framing projects
with a “familiar” language might be better received by founders.
In the near future, the research of Dr. Barberio will be addressing the role of media
framing of “cultivated meat”, to shed light on the challenge of regulators in situations
where a new product or technology is developing presenting both business opportunities
and threats to preexisting industrial sectors and institutions.
* Arora-Jonsson, S., Wezel, F. C., Karthikeyan, S. I., & Barberio, V. (2024). Losing
Their Religion: Organizational Identity Hybridization of British Political Parties
1950–2015. Journal of Management, 01492063241248403.
July
Energy and Economic Growth: New Chapter by Prof. Antonakakis and WVPU Student Yaroslav
Usikov
Prof. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Full Professor and Area Coordinator for Economics at WVPU,
and WVPU student Yaroslav Usikov have collaboratively published a research chapter
titled "Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions, and Economic Growth Nexus in EU Countries
Over the Period 1995-2020".
Featured in the "Handbook on Energy and Economic Growth" by Edward Elgar Publishing,
edited by Mohamed Arouri and Mathieu Gomes, this chapter employs advanced methods
such as panel vector autoregression (PVAR), panel Granger causality, and panel impulse
response functions to analyze data from 26 European countries over a 25-year periods.
Their findings provide insights into the relationships between energy consumption,
carbon emissions, and economic growth. Notably, the research underscores an N-shaped
Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), challenging the effectiveness of current renewable
energy policies in promoting sustainable growth.
This publication exemplifies the valuable contributions of WVPU students and faculty
to critical global discussions on energy and economic policy.
New Insights on Sustainable Project Management: Book Chapter by Professors Eskerod
and Huemann
In collaboration with Prof. Dr. Martina Huemann of the Bartlett School of Sustainable
Construction, University College London, and WU Vienna University of Economics and
Business, our own Prof. Dr. Pernille Eskerod has contributed a significant book chapter
titled "Project Stakeholder Orientation Principles for Managing Projects Sustainably"
to the international Research Handbook on Sustainable Project Management, published
by Edward Elgar Publishing. This handbook will be available in July 2024.
Eskerod and Huemann propose and define six principles to guide stakeholder orientation
in projects. These principles include inclusive stakeholder definition, value transparency,
perceived fairness, future orientation, co-creation, and multiple engagement forms.
Each principle is exemplified with a vignette, showcasing a project that either implements
or overlooks the principle in practice.
Reference: Eskerod, P. & Huemann, M. (2024). Project Stakeholder Orientation Principles
for Managing Projects Sustainably, CH 14, in Huemann, M., & Silvius, G. (eds), Research Handbook on Sustainable Project Management (pp. 242-254). Edward Elgar Publishing.
May
Prof. Dr. Boris Fisera Joins Webster Vienna
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Boris Fisera has joined the Business and Management
Department at Webster Vienna Private University. Dr. Fisera's scholarly work delves
into the mechanisms of economic systems, with a particular focus on the role of exchange
rates, international financial flows, financial markets, and financial institutions
in fostering economic growth and development. His research not only aims to explain
complex economic processes such as the economic development but also offers valuable
insights for policymakers on, for instance, stimulating economic growth and mitigating
the adverse effects of economic crises. While primarily a macroeconomist, Dr. Fisera
also addresses distributional issues such as income inequality in his research.
In his latest study, “Exchange Rates and the Speed of Economic Recovery: The Role
of Financial Development”, Dr. Fisera examines the factors influencing the speed of
economic recovery after an economic crisis. This research fills a critical gap in
macroeconomic research, which typically examines long-term economic phenomena and
may not provide representative insights on economic recoveries owing to the infrequent
nature of economic crises. Dr. Fisera identifies 341 episodes of economic recovery
across 67 countries over the past three decades, analyzing why some countries recover
more swiftly than others. His findings highlight the crucial role of a robust financial
system in expediting economic recovery by providing necessary external funds to economic
agents. Additionally, the study reveals that the strategy of devaluing the domestic
currency to spur growth is not particularly effective in hastening post-crisis recovery.
These insights offer new evidence on economic dynamics during crises and practical
policy recommendations.
Dr. Fisera's ongoing research focuses on monetary economics, specifically the transmission
of central bank policies to inflation. His extensive research background and innovative
methodologies promise to significantly enhance our department's academic and research
capabilities. We are excited about the contributions Dr. Fisera will bring to our
academic community and are confident that his expertise will inspire both our faculty
and students to achieve new heights in their scholarly pursuits.
April
Maria Madlberger, Professor and Head of the Business and Management Department at
Webster Vienna Private University collaborated with Dr. Lukas Wolf from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität
Erlangen-Nürnberg to investigate how used electronic devices impact characteristics
of user-generated content.
With the emergence of social media platforms, e-commerce platforms and web-shops,
discussion boards, and online forums, Internet users have an increasing number of
opportunities to share their opinions and knowledge online. Research has revealed
that user-generated content has a large impact on consumers’ decision-making, hence,
understanding what impacts user-generated content is crucial for any digital business
activity and highly relevant in scholarly research. Nowadays, Internet users can choose
from an increasing number of digital devices to generate and submit user-generated
content. In addition to traditional computers, mobile devices, particularly smartphones
are a popular device to make contributions independent from time and place. Although
the various devices have similar capabilities for content creation and submission,
they are very different in their characteristics, such as screen size, user interface,
and usage context,
Prof. Madlberger and Dr. Wolf aimed at understanding what role the submission devices
are playing in the creation and submission of user-generated content on the Internet.
For this purpose, they conducted a systematic literature review to obtain the state
of the art of academic research in this relevant area. From an initial set of more
than 2,000 scholarly articles obtained by keyword search, 25 articles that published
38 studies have been included for the review. Research in this area is mainly done
on the analysis of secondary data (e.g., text analysis, machine learning, and NLP
analyses of user-generated content) as well as experimental designs.
In a weight analysis, several strong impact factors have been identified. Among other
insights, the study reveals that user-generated content that is submitted via mobile
devices, is shorter, more emotional, and more self-centered. On other attributes,
such as valence, ratings, and perceived helpfulness, scholarly insights are contradicting
and therefore calling for further research. The systematic literature review also
discovered factors that have been addressed in very few studies and thus deserve further
attention.
The results of the systematic literature review and weight analysis will be presented
at the upcoming 32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) in Cyprus,
June 2024.
March 2024
Unveiling the Economic Impact of Aging Populations: A New Study by Professors Antonakakis
and Workie
Professors Nikolaos Antonakakis and Menbere Workie Tiruneh from Webster Vienna Private
University's Business and Management Department have made a significant contribution
to the field of economic research with their latest study published in Applied Economics
Letters. Their paper, titled "Is there an Aging Population Kuznets Curve?" delves
into the complex relationship between aging populations and economic performance in
advanced economies.
This pivotal research, based on data from 126 countries over a span of nearly five
decades (1970-2019), employs innovative non-linear growth regression techniques to
pinpoint when the aging population begins to negatively impact economic growth and
productivity. The study identifies critical thresholds: economic challenges intensify
when the portion of the population aged 50 and over exceeds 42% of those aged 15-49,
the old age dependency ratio climbs above 14%, and the share of the elderly population
surpasses 9%.
Antonakakis and Workie's findings are particularly relevant for countries already
beyond these markers, underscoring the urgency of policy reforms in pension and healthcare
systems to accommodate demographic shifts without compromising economic stability.
Their research sheds light on the pressing need for strategic approaches, including
automation and robotization, to counterbalance the dwindling and aging workforce.
The study emerges at a critical juncture, as nations grapple with the repercussions
of retirement policy reforms, evidenced by the recent protests in France against raising
the retirement age. It offers a timely beacon for policymakers, signaling when to
initiate more gradual and socially acceptable policy changes to mitigate potential
unrest.
"Is there an Aging Population Kuznets Curve?" stands as a landmark in economic and
demographic research, providing a solid foundation for future studies aimed at tackling
the challenges posed by aging populations. Professors Antonakakis and Workie's work
not only prompts a reevaluation of current policies but also encourages a broader
discussion on sustainable strategies to ensure economic prosperity in the face of
demographic changes.
Reference: Antonakakis, N. and Workie, M. (2024, in press). “Is there an Aging Population
Kuznets Curve?”, Applied Economics Letters. DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2024.2336179
February 2024
New Book Chapter Alert: Prof. Pernille Eskerod Contributes to Latest Project Management
Handbook
We are proud to announce that Prof. Pernille Eskerod, full-time professor at WVPU specializing in management and organizational behavior,
has co-authored a significant chapter in the upcoming 6th edition of "The Handbook
of Project Management." This comprehensive resource, edited by Prof. Martina Huemann
and Prof. Rodney Turner, provides practitioners and students with cutting-edge insights
into project management best practices.
Prof. Eskerod's chapter, in cooperation with Prof. Huemann, titled "Engaging Project Stakeholders," promises to be a valuable addition to the book. Scheduled for release on February
28, 2024, this edition encompasses the latest developments in project management,
offering practical knowledge that professionals can apply immediately.
Reference: Eskerod, P. & Huemann, M. (2024). Engaging Project Stakeholders, CH 27,
in Huemann, M., & Turner, R. (eds) Handbook of Project Management, 6e, Routledge.
January 2024
Professor Collaborates on Influential Paper in International Journal of Project Management
Prof. Dr. Pernille Eskerod, Full Professor and Area Coordinator for Management and
Organizational Behavior, recently published an article on stakeholder engagement on
social media in the International Journal of Project Management.
The research was a collaborative effort involving our own Dr. Pernille Eskerod, with
Dr. Kenneth Chung and Ms. Jingbo Zhang of the School of Project Management at the
John Grill Institute for Project Leadership, Australia, as well as Dr. Anna Lund Jepsen
from the Department of Business and Management at the University of Southern Denmark.
Paper Title: "Response Strategies for Community Stakeholder Engagement on Social Media: A Case
Study of a Large Infrastructure Project"
This research paper explores the dynamic landscape of community stakeholder engagement
through social media, focusing on its relevance to large infrastructure projects.
The study offers valuable insights into stakeholder identification, assessment, and
response strategies within the realm of social media. Using Facebook communication
sequences related to the establishment of the Western Sydney International Airport,
the analysis reveals that conventional stakeholder identification and assessment guidelines
only partially apply to the social media context. Limited information about stakeholders
and their concerns necessitates novel approaches. One noteworthy finding is the infrequent
response from the project to community stakeholder comments on social media, missing
valuable opportunities for engagement and acknowledging supportive comments. The paper
suggests the adoption of a proactive 'always respond' response strategy on social
media platforms and encourages the incorporation of an 'acknowledgment' response strategy.
In effect, this research underscores the importance of adapting traditional project
management approaches to the digital age.
December
Professor Nikolaos Antonakakis Delivers Guest Lecture at Washington State University
Prof. Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Full Professor and Area Coordinator for Economics
at WVPU, in collaboration with Dr. Lenia Papdopoulou deliver an impactful guest lecture
at Washington State University (WSU). The event Was hosted by Prof. Dr. Dipra Jha,
Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion – Inclusive Pedagogy, Scholarly Associate
Professor & Fulbright Specialist at the WSU Carson College of Business.
During this talk, Dr. Antonakakis covered "The Role of Artificial Intelligence in
Tourism and Hospitality". The core focus of his talk was the exploration of the transformative
impact of AI technologies in reshaping the landscape of the industry, discussing innovative
applications that enhance customer experience, operational efficiency, and strategic
decision-making. Following this, Dr. Papadopoulou delved into the intricate world
of "Negotiations in Tourism and Hospitality". Her talk strived to dissect the nuanced
dynamics of negotiations within the sector, offering valuable strategies and insights
to navigate complex interactions and secure beneficial agreements, ultimately contributing
to the advancement and profitability of tourism and hospitality enterprises.
September
Professor Dr. Maria Madlberger presents research conducted with Webster Vienna graduate
Ruslan Tagiev, MBA, Msc.
Dr. Maria Madlberger will present a study that she has done together with the Webster
Vienna MBA and MSc. Marketing graduate Ruslan Tagiev at an international scholarly
conference.
Mr. Tagiev and Dr. Madlberger empirically investigated the role of intrinsic and extrinsic
cues by an experimental design involving the average user rating as well as product
samples in the context of a printed textbook. Intrinsic cues are inherent properties
of a product, such as the content, chapters, or writing style of a book. Extrinsic
cues are related to the product, but not inherent to it. Examples are a book author’s
reputation or evaluations of the product by customers. Previous research in offline
contexts has shown significant impacts of intrinsic and extrinsic cues on product
quality perception. The study investigates whether this also applies in electronic
commerce with typical online offered types of cues.
The study uses the availability of a textbook’s sample pages and average user rating
as stimuli representing intrinsic and extrinsic cues and investigated how they are
influencing perceived product quality. Findings indicate that the extrinsic cue (average
user rating) affects perceived product quality. On the other hand, the intrinsic cue
(product sample) does not show an impact on perceived product quality. Dr. Madlberger
will present the study at the International Conference on Web Information Systems
and Technologies (WEBIST) in November 2023 in Rome.
August
Exploring Gender Biases in Workplace Mistreatment: A Compelling Research Endeavor
(Projekt: Schau night weg)
Yet another iteration of output from Dr. Eva Zedlacher’s large-scale project “Schau
nicht weg (engl. *Do not ignore) funded via the Projektfond Arbeit 4.0. of the Austrian
Chamber of Labour!
Dr. Eva Zedlacher, Assistant Professor of Management at Webster Vienna’s Business
and Management Department and Professor T. Yanagida have undertaken a captivating
investigation published in Frontiers in Psychology, unraveling gender biases in attributions of blame for workplace mistreatment. By
utilizing a thoughtfully crafted video experiment involving eight professional actors
and 880 Austrian workforce participants, the study offers groundbreaking insights.
Overall, the researchers expected that female perpetrators would be judged more harshly
than men for the same behavior. Findings showed that this gender bias did indeed occur
when the type of mistreatment was ‘exclusion’ and when the target of the aggression
was female; more specifically when women excluded other women from the lunch break,
they were judged more negatively than when a male perpetrator did same act. Interestingly,
female targets of male perpetrators were often seen as (too) sensitive, whereas male
targets did not trigger any attributional biases. Additionally, when the displayed
mistreatment was about an ‘angry insult’, gender biases were weaker than for exclusion.
These findings advocate for proactive organizational interventions, emphasizing targeted
anti-bias training to counteract stereotypes about women harassing other women at
work or being ‘too sensitive’ when mistreatment by men. The study's comprehensive
approach encourages a deeper understanding of gender dynamics, paving the way for
more inclusive and supportive work environments.
July
Professor Menbere Workie Presented Research on Economic Recovery at the Prestigious
European Economic and Finance Society Conference
Professor Menbere Workie delivered a captivating research presentation entitled "United
We Fall, Together We Recover: Investigating the Impact of Business Cycle Synchronization
on Economic Recovery" at the highly esteemed 21st Annual European Economic and Finance
Society Conference held in Berlin. The study delves into unexplored territory by examining
the repercussions of heightened business cycle synchronization on the pace of economic
recuperation. Utilizing a panel consisting of 63 advanced and emerging economies and
employing the local projections method, the findings shed light on an intriguing discovery.
In collaboration with WVPU adjunct professor Boris Fisera and WVPU alumnus Karim Elatraby,
the research demonstrates that nations with low levels of business cycle synchronization
tend to experience swifter economic recovery following global risk shocks. This study
underscores the significance of maintaining monetary policy independence and challenges
the conventional belief that floating exchange rates serve as effective shock absorbers.
June
WVPU Professors Chosen as Guest Editors for Special Issue of 'Sustainability' Journal
In an exciting development, Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Prof. Dr. Johannes Pollak, and
Dr. Samuel Schubert from WVPU have been selected as guest editors for an upcoming
special issue of the esteemed "Sustainability" journal. This issue, titled "The Economic
and Environmental Pillar of Sustainable Development in the European Union," provides
an outstanding platform for the convergence of their respective areas of expertise.
Dr. Antonakakis will bring his extensive knowledge in applied time series econometrics,
international finance, and macroeconomics, with a particular emphasis on European
integration and energy economics. Prof. Dr. Pollak, on the other hand, will contribute
his expertise in European energy policy and the integration of political theory and
parliamentarism within the European Union. Additionally, Dr. Schubert will provide
a profound understanding of geopolitical energy policy and energy security in Europe.
The special issue aims to delve into the crucial intersection of economic growth and
environmental protection, a vital discussion in today's socio-economic landscape.
Published by MDPI, the "Sustainability" journal is widely recognized for fostering
scholarly conversations on sustainable development. Incorporating a diverse range
of perspectives from environmental economics, public policy, social sciences, and
more, the papers featured in this issue will center around key themes such as sustainable
development, economic growth, environmental protection, and climate change within
the European Union. The insights generated from these contributions are expected to
enhance our comprehension of the intricate dynamics within the EU, with the ultimate
goal of redefining the perceived dichotomy between economic development and environmental
preservation.
April
Prof. Dr. Pernille Eskerod, Full Professor and Area Coordinator for Management and Organizational Behavior,
presented in February 2023 some of her research on the Nineteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability that was organized by
the global On Sustainability Research Network and hosted by Ljubljana University in
Slovenia.
The research was conducted together with MohammadJavad Bagherzadeh Polami, who is
a WVPU bachelor student, and the presentation was called Stakeholder Engagement through
Sustainability Labels - Strategic Choices within the Food Industry.
Abstract:
In recent times, labeling - not least within the food industry - has become a popular
means for companies to communicate about sustainability efforts to their various stakeholders
whether customers, investors, employees, partners, or the society. Our aim is to address
the following research questions: How do companies aim to engage stakeholders through
sustainability labels within the food industry? What are the costs and benefits of
various sustainability label choices in selected segments of the food industry? In
our research, we undertake a literature review on stakeholder theory and sustainability
labeling. Further on, we conduct a qualitative multi-case study based on online secondary
data collection on regional and global sustainability labels within the food industry,
e.g. seafood labels. We offer within-case and cross-case analyses. Our research shows
that food labels can take the form of governmental required labels, self-declarations,
non-governmental endorsements, and third-party certificates. Each form comes with
its own costs and benefits, and our research implies that any company should make
informed and conscious strategic decisions on whether, which and how many sustainability
labels to pursue. Our research implies that the cost side of third-party certificates
is worth further research and discussion. Pursuing multiple third-party certificates
may not bring more stakeholder benefits, however it may lead to significant extra
monetary and non-monetary costs for the company at hand. We welcome practitioners
and researchers for further dialogue.
The presentation was well-received by the audience, and it became clear that the interest
for sustainability labels is both high and growing, not least when it comes to seafood
labels.
Research done in cooperation between faculty and students is an example of a win-win
situation at WVPU.
March
Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Associate Professor of Economics and Finance with Webster
Vienna’s Business and Management Department, was invited to present his latest research at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) on November 24, 2022.
His presentation focused on the interplay between energy consumption, CO2 emissions
and economic growth, a topic that has been extensively researched but still poses
challenges for policymakers around the world. The topic of Antonakakis' presentation
was based on the undergraduate thesis of Yaroslav Usikov, whom Antonakakis was supervising
at Webster Vienna Private University.
The thesis aimed to examine the relationship between energy consumption, CO2 emissions,
and economic growth, particularly in European economies. Usikov's thesis was ground-breaking
in its approach and methodology, and Antonakakis recognized the potential for the
research to make a significant impact on the field. Following the completion of Usikov's
thesis, Antonakakis submitted a co-authored version of the work for publication in
the "Handbook of Energy, Sustainability and Economic Growth" by Edward Elgar Publishing
Ltd.
The handbook is a collection of cutting-edge research that explores the complex interplay
between energy consumption, sustainability, and economic growth. Antonakakis' (coauthored
with Usikov) submission was accepted, and the work will be published as a chapter
in this handbook within 2023. Antonakakis' presentation at OPEC was a unique opportunity
to share his research and insights with policymakers and industry leaders from around
the world.
The presentation focused on the key findings of Usikov's thesis, which showed a significant
correlation between energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth. The research
demonstrated that increasing energy consumption was essential for economic growth
but was also linked to an increase in CO2 emissions, which posed a significant challenge
for policymakers looking to balance economic growth and environmental sustainability.
During the presentation, Antonakakis highlighted the importance of developing sustainable
energy policies that promote economic growth while also mitigating the negative impacts
of energy consumption on the environment. He emphasized that investing in renewable
energy sources such as wind and solar power was crucial for reducing CO2 emissions
and promoting sustainability while also providing a significant economic boost through
the creation of green jobs. The presentation was well-received by attendees, and Antonakakis'
research was praised for its unique approach and its potential to inform future policymaking
decisions. Several policymakers expressed their interest in further exploring the
research and potentially using it to inform energy policies in their respective countries.
Overall, Antonakakis' presentation at OPEC and the inclusion of Usikov's thesis in
the "Handbook of Energy, Sustainability and Economic Growth" are significant achievements
for the field of energy economics. The research highlights the complex interplay between
energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth and provides important insights into the development
of sustainable energy policies that promote both economic growth and environmental
sustainability.
As policymakers and industry leaders continue to grapple with these complex issues,
research like that of Antonakakis and Usikov will undoubtedly play an important role
in shaping the future of energy policy and sustainability.
December
Head of Business and Management Department, Maria Madlberger, PhD, is member of the
editorial team of the scholarly journal, Electronic Markets
Maria Madlberger, PhD, Webster Vienna's Head of Business and Management Department and Full Professor;
Area Coordinator for Marketing has been appointed as Co-Editor of the renowned scholarly journal Electronic Markets – the International Journal on Networked Business. This newly installed editorial
team will be in place from 2023. Together with Prof. Rainer Alt from the University
of Leipzig (Editor-in-Chief), Prof. Mathias Klier from the University of Ulm, and
Dr. Hans-Dieter Zimmermann from the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences,
Madlberger will be responsible for the journal’s strategic orientation, handling of
special issues, and pre-selection of journal submissions. The Editorial team is supported
by more than 30 Senior and Associate Editors located at universities around the globe.
Since its foundation in 1991, Electronic Markets has been a success story among international Information Systems scholarly journals.
Its impact factor has constantly increased to reach a current level of 6.017 (Clarivate
Analytics Master Journal List 2021) and a five-year-impact factor of 6.378. It is
ranked A among relevant international IS journal rankings, B according to the VBH
ranking, and on the 6th position among top global IS journals. The acceptance rate
in 2022 is 11.9 percent. Electronic Markets is published by Springer and indexed in
the leading academic journal platforms, hence accessible in around 7,000 institutions
worldwide.
In terms of content, Electronic Markets publishes scholarly research at the intersection between information technology and
business with a major focus on the networking aspect. This view particularly addresses
information technologies’ capabilities to transform the way business is conducted,
to establish new markets, to offer new communication possibilities, and to enhance
collaboration among multiple stakeholders. Its target audience are scholars, practitioners,
and policy makers who are concerned with digital transformation, digitally-enabled
business models, digital platforms and ecosystems and other impacts of information
technology.
This is how the journal describes its scope: Electronic Markets is a leading academic journal from the information systems discipline that offers
a forum for research on all forms of networked business. EM recognizes the transformational role of information and communication technology
(ICT) in changing the interaction between organizations and individuals ("digitalization"),
which is present in social networks, electronic commerce, supply chain management,
or customer relationship management. Electronic markets, in particular, refer to forms
of networked business where multiple suppliers and customers interact for economic
purposes within one or among multiple tiers in economic value chains.
September
Webster Vienna Private Univerity professor Dr. Menbere Workie has presented his research in collaboration with Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis and Dr. Boris Fisera of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Adjunct Faculty at WVPU at the Annual Meeting
of the Slovak Economic Association (SEAM 2022) on Sept. 15, 2022, at the University
of Economics in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The conference was a joint event with
the annual conference of the University of Economics in Bratislava for PhD students
and post-doctoral scholars EDAMBA.
Abstract — Beyond Competitiveness: Is Productivity Everything?
We extend the discussion on the ongoing controversies over the concept of competitiveness
on the macroeconomic level, by empirically assessing whether productivity is a superior
predictor of economic growth when compared to World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global
Competitiveness Index (GCI). Our empirical findings seem to suggest four contributions
to the ongoing discussions on refining the approaches to international country ranking.
First, the ranking of countries based on total factor productivity yields the same
results as those based on the WEF’s GCI.
Second, the correlation between all the scores of the 12 sub-pillars of the GCI, as
well as the overall GCI score and productivity yield strikingly similar results.
Third, using a panel dataset for 104 countries over the years 2007-2019, our results
obtained from a panel VAR (PVAR) model indicate that productivity has a stronger prediction
power for both real GDP growth, as well as for the inequality-adjusted GDP growth
than the GCI.
This is particularly the case for advanced economies. Fourth, using the residuals
of a regression of productivity on GCI, we explore the drivers of the differences
between productivity and GCI. We find that higher values of rule of law, property
rights, economic freedom and political stability explain why advanced economies are
positioned higher in their level of productivity than in the GCI ranking. Finally,
our results support the theoretical literature and previous empirical evidence that
is more inclined towards targeting the drivers of productivity on the macroeconomic
level — as opposed to ranking countries according to their level of competitiveness
— as a means of reducing cross-country variation in living standards.
June
Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Associate Professor and Area Coordinator for Economics and
Finance of Webster Vienna’s Business and Management Department, received a letter of acceptance
from the International Review of Economics and Finance (IF 2.522) for a paper he co-authored, entitled “Dynamic connectedness among the
implied volatilities of oil prices and financial assets: New evidence of the COVID-19
pandemic”
Abstract
This paper examines the dynamic connectedness among the implied volatilities of oil
prices (OVX) and fourteen other assets, which can be grouped into five different assets
classes (i.e., energy commodities, stock markets, precious metals, exchange rates
and bond markets). To do so we employ a recently developed time-varying parameter
vector autoregression (TVP-VAR), using daily data for the period 16th March 2011 to
3th March 2021 that covers the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical
results suggest that connectedness across the different asset classes and oil price
implied volatilities are varying over time and fluctuate at very high levels. The
dynamic total connectedness fluctuates between 65% and 85% indicating a high degree
of cross-market risk linkages. Furthermore, we find that the oil market is becoming
more integrated with the financial markets, since it tends to be materially impacted
by abrupt fluctuations of the global financial markets’ volatilities. More specifically,
the analysis shows that, throughout the period, OVX is a net receiver of shocks to
the remaining implied volatilities. Finally, the pairwise net spillovers suggests
that OVX is constantly at the net receiving end vis-a-vis the majority of the asset
classes’ implied volatilities. Those findings are of major importance for portfolio
and risk management in terms of asset allocation and diversification.
May
Business and Management Associate Professors Dr. Menbere Workie and Dr. Antonakakis, together with their colleague Boris Fisera, have published the paper, "Beyond Competitiveness: Is Productivity Everything?"
Abstract:
In this study, we examine the potential use of total factor productivity as conceptually
less controversial and methodologically more robust metric for cross-country comparison
of economic performance. Our empirical results seem to suggest three possible contributions
to ongoing call of refining the approaches to country ranking.
First, the ranking of countries based on normalized labor productivity yield the same
results as those based on the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI).
Second, the correlation between all the scores of the 12 sub-pillars of the GCI, as
well as the overall GCI score and labor productivity yield strikingly similar results.
Third, based on a panel dataset for 68 countries over the years 2007-2019, our results
obtained from a panel VAR (PVAR) model indicate that productivity has a stronger prediction
power for both real GDP growth, as well as for the inequality-adjusted GDP growth
than the GCI. Switching to a panel regression that is based on GMM, the findings indicate
that higher values of rule of law, property rights, economic freedom and political
stability do seem to explain why productivity is higher than the GCI.
April
Eva Zedlacher, Assistant Professor of Management at the BandM Department, has recently finalized her large-scale project Schau nicht weg (engl. *Do not ignore).
This research was funded via the Projektfond Arbeit 4.0. of the Austrian Chamber of
Labour, Section Lower Austria). One of the outputs of this project is a training film
about (cyber)bullying in a Viennese hotel. Interactive options allow participants
to make decisions on behalf of one of the bystanders in the film. The decisions may
lead to different course and endings of the film. Additional explanatory videos and
text are provided on the website, as well. Try it yourself: schaunichtweg.training
In our interview, Zedlacher told us more about the rationale for this training film.
Congrats on this great movie! Can you tell us more why and how you came to do interactive
training film against (cyber)bullying at work?
Eva: Thanks a lot, the two filmmakers Franz Quitt and Magdalena Reichinger did a great
part of the job here! The rationale behind was was that the “usual suspects” for anti-bullying
trainings such as in-house workshops or written codes of conducts with guidelines
and corporate values often do not lead to any (behavioral) change. A film tells a
story, and stories trigger emotions. A film also fosters identification with the protagonists,
especially when showing the target’s perspective and his/her suffering. Such perspective
switches are essential for effective adult trainings according to prior research by
Sekerka and colleagues. In addition, giving participants time to scrutinize and eventually
see the consequences of their action or their inaction via multilinear paths can help
reducing immediate victim-blaming.
Victim-blaming is a term well-known from sexual harassment and the #MeToo campaign.
Eva: Yes, I have done research on dominant blame patterns for non-sexualized harassment
earlier. We found that common phrases about targets such as “he takes it too personal”
or “she provoked it” usually narrow our focus and result in a lack of support by the
third party. In general, we often neglect (organizational) antecedents which allow
bullying to thrive or at least go unpunished — such as a leader not taking on his/her
responsibility, or a high level of competition and stress at work. It is in particular
hurtful for targets when their colleagues not intervene – this is also we focus on
bystander action in Schau nicht weg.
You also show a great deal of negative effects of digitalized interaction and written
communication at work.
Yes, that was an important aspect when writing the plot. Apart from cyberbullying,
we wanted to shed light on “minor” incidents of digital misbehavior, such as spreading
colleagues’ mails or chat messages without the original sender’s consent. Many politics
or business scandals also demonstrate that until recently we have interacted on digital
platforms without much reflection. It has been said often that technological advancements
have preceded the legal framework for sanctioning misbehavior in the digital space
such as hate postings etc. However, we also need a stronger ethical awareness, as
some of our daily digital practices such as putting a colleague on blind copy (BCC)
or excluding someone from a group chat conversation may be legal, but still unethical
and damaging.
Very interesting indeed. What are the next steps since now the training film is published?
Besides this training tool, we have also conducted video experiments with male and
female “perpetrators” and “victims” of workplace mistreatment to investigate differences
in third parties’ attributions of blame. The paper has just been accepted at this
year’s Academy of Management conference, and I am happy to share results in the next
months. I would also like to take this opportunity and say a BIG thank you to the
whole team of the Projektfond Arbeit 4.0 of the Arbeiterkammer Niederösterreich –
their support and trust throughout the last year(s) was essential! And many thanks
also to the great film crew, all actors, my project team Anastasiia Hizenko and Reza
Noori, Anna Lobianco and to all others volunteers and extras from Webster and beyond!
We look forward to some other research news in the next months then. Thanks a lot
and good luck for the next steps!
Thanks a lot!
March
Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis has been recently awarded the 2021 Best Paper Award for his co-authored publication in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management (JRFM),
among all papers published in JRFM in 2020. After a thorough evaluation of the originality
and significance of the papers, their number of citations, and their number of downloads,
three winning papers, were nominated by the Journal Award Committee. The research
study by Nikolaos Antonakakis, Ioannis Chatziantoniou and David Gabauer that won the
1st prize, is entitled “Refined Measures of Dynamic Connectedness based on Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregressions”, and develops an econometric framework that is able to capture the transmission
mechanism of shocks and their interconnectedness in financial markets in a more flexible
manner compared to its predecessors. This framework is being put into practice by
investigating the dynamic connectedness of the four most traded foreign exchange rates
wherein its superiority is demonstrated.
Reference
“Refined Measures of Dynamic Connectedness based on Time-Varying Parameter Vector
Autoregressions”. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Ioannis Chatziantoniou and David Gabauer J.
Risk Financial Manag. 2020, 13(4), 84.
January
The Business and Management Department Head Dr. Maria Madlberger has presented a paper
co-authored with the MSc. Marketing graduate Jiri Jizdny at the 20th International
Conference on WWW/Internet (ICWI). The title of the paper is "Impact of Promotional
Social Media Content on Click-Through Rate — Evidence from a FMCG Company."
We are especially proud that the paper is based on Jiri's Master thesis. On top of
that, the paper has been honored with the ICWI Outstanding Paper award which is a
demonstration of the high quality research that is accomplished by our students.
Paper Abstract: Social media are a key communication channel between businesses and their customers
and an effective means to induce customer engagement. However, there is little empirical
evidence on the impact of social media marketing on the click-through rate which ultimately
contributes to profitability and financial success.
This paper investigates impacts of different attributes of social media content, i.e.,
image, text-based features, and a retargeting campaign, on the click-through rate
by analyzing data obtained from an e-commerce company’s A/B testing. The findings
show that image posts outperform text-based posts in terms of engagement, but not
for the click-through rate. Retargeting outperforms social media campaigns in respect
of the click-through rate.
On the other hand, text-based features such as emojis and seasonal vocabulary do not
show a significant impact on the click-through rate. The findings allow conclusions
on an optimized allocation and design features of social media content.
October
We are proud to announce that our Business and Management Associate Professor Dr.
Menbere Workie presented a paper at the World Finance Conference 2021, Oslo, Norway
(held online) that took place in August 2021. World Finance Conference brings the
best researchers around the world together to discuss their findings. This conference
is one the most important conferences in finance in the world! The title of the paper
is “Do Remittances Trigger the Dutch Disease in the Long Run? A Panel Cointegration
Model”.
Abstract: In this paper we investigate the impact of financial inflows in the form
of personal remittances on the real exchange rate using a sample of 134 developing
and emerging economies (EMDEs) over the years 1980-2019. Using the heterogeneous panel
cointegration approach, we find that remittances exert a long-term pressure on the
real appreciation of the domestic currency, which is beyond the level of real appreciation
implied by the Balassa-Samuelson effect. Consequently, we find evidence that remittances
might contribute to triggering the phenomenon of the Dutch disease. We also find evidence
for heterogeneity in the effects of remittances on the real exchange rate over the
long-term: having floating exchange rate, higher level of economic freedom and higher
financial development reduces the long-run appreciation of the real exchange rate
due to the remittance inflows and thus, the risk of the Dutch disease arising from
the remittances inflows.
September
Associate Professor, Dr. Antonakakis to Present at VI International Meeting of Economics/VI
Encuentro de Economica
Business and Management Department Head, Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis, will be delivering
a keynote speech at this year’s 6th International Meeting of Economics, hosted by
the Department of Quantitative Economics of the Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Ecuador.
The topic of the presentation is "Telling more with less: Proposing Productivity as
a new metric of global competitiveness ranking,” based on continuing research with
fellow WVPU professor Dr. Menbere Workie. Researchers, academics, students, and professionals
will join virtually this September 1st through 3rd for the annual conference.
The topics covered will include environmental and ecological economics, effects of
the COVID-19 pandemic, welfare economics, and economic policy. Additional keynote
speakers will be Anil K. Bera (author of the Jarque-Bera test), Corinne Autant-Bernard
(University of Lyon), Juan Pablo Chauvin (Interamerican Development Bank) and Georgina
Gómez (University Erasmus Rotterdam).
This month, Dr. Eva Zedlacher, Assistant Professor, along with recent MBA graduate
student Allison Snowden, will be awarded the “Best New Directions Paper” honor by
the Conflict Management Division of this year’s annual meeting of the renowned Academy
of Management.
The Academy of Management Annual Meeting is the largest and most prestigious management
conference worldwide. The award is given for their paper “Practitioners' blame patterns
and intervention measures for workplace bullying complaints.". The official award
ceremony is at the end of the month. We spoke with both award recipients to get their
reaction and to find out a little bit more about their study and the conference.
WVPU: Congratulations on your recent award, this is a indeed a great achievement.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the award and the Academy of Management for
those who are not familiar?
Dr. Zedlacher: Thanks a lot for the congratulations. I am very happy about this award.
The Academy of Management hosts their annual Meeting where management scholars from
around the world can submit and present their latest study findings. The Best New
Directions Paper award from the Conflict Management division acknowledges studies
that make a significant contribution to conflict literature through innovation involving
but not limited to the innovative use of new methods or a new approach/venue for the
study of conflict and negotiation in organizations and broader society.
So, when I got this mail with the information about the award by the program chair,
it really took me by surprise!
WVPU: And Ms. Snowden, what was your reaction to the news?
Ms. Snowden: This was an amazing surprise. I was thrilled to have a paper accepted
by the Academy of Management in the first place; to have it receive an award as well
was astounding! This is certainly the first honor of the type I have received.
WVPU: Could you tell us about your submission paper “Practitioners' blame patterns
and intervention measures for workplace bullying complaints" and what “new direction”
it takes?
Dr. Zedlacher: The paper stems from my first project supported by the Projektfonds
4.0 of the Lower Austria Chamber of Labor, which also served as the basis for Allison
Snowden’s graduate thesis project, which she finished earlier this year. I have done
research on the challenge to define and intervene adequately in workplace bullying
incidences before.
The goal of this very qualitative study was to explore employee representatives’ and
HR professionals’ interpretations and organizational responses to a fictional workplace
bullying complaint, when the alleged target has either received high or low performance
ratings in the past. While I do not want to discuss all results now, one of our major
findings was that third parties often do not blame only one actor or factor for workplace
bullying, but engage in so-called “conjunctive” blaming (e.g. blaming the relationship
between the actors predominantly for the bullying, but also holding the alleged target
culpable to some extent).
However, a rejection to label the case as “workplace bullying” mostly came with blaming
only the victim’s deficiencies and personality. These research findings are relevant
for improved intervention and for how to avoid immediate victim-blaming in organizational
practice.
WVPU: Ms. Snowden, this could certainly indicate a promising career in research. Now
that you’ve had a taste of success as a researcher, is this an area you are considering
to pursue further?
Ms. Snowden: Finishing my MBA thesis was a bit of a struggle. While completing my
thesis I was working, had two toddlers to care for, and there was the pandemic. Given
that, at the moment I am enjoying a break from any new research. That being said, I am a life-long learner. My MBA was my 4th academic program — I
can’t seem to stay out of classrooms — so it's likely I will eventually enroll in
a PhD program or will otherwise pursue research.
WVPU: You are quite accomplished! What is the secret to your success?
Ms. Snowden: The close cooperation and mentorship offered at WVPU made this possible.
Dr. Zedlacher, my thesis supervisor, offered me the unique opportunity to collaborate
on a funded research project, which served both as the basis for my MBA thesis and
for this paper. Dr. Zedlacher was a dedicated thesis supervisor who spent an extraordinary
amount of time working with me and taught me so much.
Following the successful defense of my thesis, she also gave me the chance to collaborate
on two conference papers and one article we submitted for publication. This level
of support and collaboration from faculty is one of WVPU’s greatest strengths, and
I am grateful for the opportunities it afforded me.
WVPU: Dr. Zedlacher, this sounds like you should do another study together. So, what
is next?
Dr. Zedlacher: That is true, I really enjoyed working with Allison, since she was
genuinely interested in the topic and showed great potential for a research career!
Right now, a revised version of our conference article is under review in a journal;
we hope to publish it soon! Other than that, I am continuing to work on the projects
funded by the Lower Austria Chamber of Labor. I am currently in the process of editing
an interactive training movie on workplace bullying for one of those projects. At
this point, I would also like to say my thanks to Silvia Feuchtl and her colleagues
from Chamber of Labour and all other professionals, who have given us such great support
so far in data collection. Doing research on conflicts and workplace bullying is often
challenging, since access to organizations and to anonymous data from victims, bystanders
and perpetrators often proves difficult given the delicate matter. Hence, if an organization
desires support for improved intervention and/or anonymous scientific evaluation and
consultation, please do not hesitate to contact me! Early prevention is the best measure
in order to fight bullying at its roots and to eventually avoid high productivity
losses for everyone involved.
WVPU: That is very exciting indeed. Please keep us posted. We will definitely inform
managers and organizations about your offer regarding scientific consultation for
such important and timely topics such as workplace bullying and harassment. Thank
you both for your time. Congratulations once again!
Dr. Zedlacher: Thank you.
Ms. Snowden: Thank you.
Dr. Zedlacher has also recently given a radio interview for the Viennese Radio Orange
about her research and what constitutes workplace bullying (19th June, 2021). You
can listen to the talk here.
WVPU Associate Professor of Finance, Dr. Ronald Hochreiter, recently co-authored a
paper for the Journal of Financial Stability. This top journal provides a forum for
rigorous academic discussion on the topic of financial crises. The paper, “How are
network centrality metrics related to interest rates in the Mexican secured and unsecured
interbank markets?” is part of the August 2021 issue.
Abstract: In financial stability, it is essential to know the determinants of interest rates
in interbank markets because they are important vehicles for liquidity allocation
among banks and are relevant for monetary policy transmission. Recent research indicates
that banks with excess liquidity exercise their market power by rationing liquidity
during periods of financial stress. This confirms the value of knowing the banks connections
and identifying liquidity spreaders in such markets to manage contagion risk, liquidity
hoarding and to preserve financial stability. In addition to well studied bank features
such as size, liquidity and credit risk, we study which network metrics relate to
interest rates during different periods. Using transaction level data on unsecured
and secured lending, we apply an approach that employs network theory, econometric
models and machine learning to analyze the structural properties of the secured and
un-secured interbank markets in Mexico. Our findings support the “too-interconnected-to-fail”
hypothesis. In the secured interbank market, PageRank shows a relationship with interest
rates, while metrics associated with the notion of influence and systemic risk (Katz
and DebtRank) are relevant in the unsecured interbank market. In general, a bank with
high centrality lends at higher rates and gets funding at lower rates.
July
“How are network centrality metrics related to interest rates in the Mexican secured
and unsecured interbank markets?” — Dr. Ronald Hochreiter, WVPU Associate Professor
of Finance, recently co-authored a paper for the Journal of Financial Stability.
WVPU Associate Professor of Finance, Dr. Ronald Hochreiter, recently co-authored a
paper for the Journal of Financial Stability. This top journal provides a forum for
rigorous academic discussion on the topic of financial crises. The paper, “How are
network centrality metrics related to interest rates in the Mexican secured and unsecured
interbank markets?” is part of the August 2021 issue.
Abstract: In financial stability, it is essential to know the determinants of interest rates
in interbank markets because they are important vehicles for liquidity allocation
among banks and are relevant for monetary policy transmission. Recent research indicates
that banks with excess liquidity exercise their market power by rationing liquidity
during periods of financial stress. This confirms the value of knowing the banks connections
and identifying liquidity spreaders in such markets to manage contagion risk, liquidity
hoarding and to preserve financial stability. In addition to well studied bank features
such as size, liquidity and credit risk, we study which network metrics relate to
interest rates during different periods. Using transaction level data on unsecured
and secured lending, we apply an approach that employs network theory, econometric
models and machine learning to analyze the structural properties of the secured and
un-secured interbank markets in Mexico. Our findings support the “too-interconnected-to-fail”
hypothesis. In the secured interbank market, PageRank shows a relationship with interest
rates, while metrics associated with the notion of influence and systemic risk (Katz
and DebtRank) are relevant in the unsecured interbank market. In general, a bank with
high centrality lends at higher rates and gets funding at lower rates.
June
Sticking to the Same Cooperation Partners during the COVID-19 Pandemic — a Research
Project within Rural Tourism
A research team led by Dr. Pernille Eskerod has been invited to present their first
results of their research project at a virtual international conference in June. The
project, titled "Changed Stakeholder Importance due to the COVID-19 Pandemic? — Rural
Tourism Case Studies from Central Europe", was developed by Business and Management
department faculty and students.
The Travel and Tourism Research Association organizes the conference, titled ‘Uncharted
Territory: Reimagining Tourism for a New Era." The COVID-19 pandemic indeed offers
an uncharted territory for everyone. This research has focused on relationship patterns
within rural tourism, i.e. small-scale tourism in the country side, e.g. accommodation
offered at farms and wineries in Austria and Serbia.
The research team (Dr. Pernille Eskerod, Dr. Eva Zedlacher, graduate student Mr. Mauro
Ortiz and undergraduate student Ms. Anja Vuletic) has carried out literature reviews,
website analyses and interviews to answer the research question: In which ways — if
any — have the relative importance of rural tourism accommodation providers’ stakeholders
changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Findings suggests that new customer segments and digital booking platform providers
are gaining more importance due to conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It
also suggests that rural tourism accommodation providers intensify already established
relationships with tourism support providers, e.g. nationwide or local referent organizations,
rather than seek for new or additional ones. In other words, they don’t give importance
to grow their stakeholder network during the pandemic when reaching for support, but
instead give priority to the well-known.
The research takes place within the partly externally financed research project 'Stakeholder
Engagement within Rural Tourism — Exploring Rural Tourism in Austria and Serbia' for
which the research team (together with researchers from University of Novi Sad, Serbia)
has received funding from the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education
and Research (OeAD) + the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development
in Serbia.
Reference: Eskerod, P., Zedlacher, E., Ortiz, M. & Vuletic, A.: Changed Stakeholder Importance
due to the COVID-19 Pandemic? — Rural Tourism Case Studies from Central Europe. Conference
paper to be presented online at the 2021 TTRA Annual International Conference, June
14-16, Texas, USA.
May
Dr. Ronald Hochreiter has been invited to present at the annual ARS Investment Funds
Conference in June 2021. The event is targeted towards professionals in the fields
of banking, law, and accounting, among others. Dr. Hochreiter’s keynote address, “AI,
Fintech & Asset Management”, will give context to investing in current market conditions
considering ongoing regulatory developments, economic megatrends, and the effect of
AI on asset management.
Dr. Hochreiter is thrilled to have the opportunity to share his knowledge on the cutting-edge
issues effecting today’s business decisions. He will be joined by several leaders
in the field of finance and investment from Austria and abroad, including WVPU adjunct
instructor, Dr. Armin Kammel.
Dr. Menbere Workie is once again representing the B&M department for April. Please
see below and please use the attached photo for the research news:
The WVPU Business and Management Department congratulates Dr. Menbere Workie on his
recent publication: Currency Depreciations in Emerging Economics: A Blessing or a
Curse for External Debt Management? A working paper published at Charles University
in Prague.
Abstract:
“We investigate the long-term effect of domestic currency depreciation on the external
debt for a panel of 41 emerging economies over the years 1999-2019. Using heterogeneous
panel co-integration methods, we find that domestic currency depreciation leads to
an increase in external debt to GDP ratio over the long-term and it reduces the sustainability
of external debt. This is particularly the case for larger depreciations, while smaller
depreciations might reduce the external debt burden over the long-term for more developed
emerging economies. Poorer emerging economies face a greater increase in external
debt burden following domestic currency depreciation. We also find that higher exchange
rate volatility and the use of floating exchange rates contributes to an increase
in external debt burden over the long-term. Consequently, our results suggest that
for emerging economies, having more volatile and floating exchange rates reduces the
sustainability of external debt.”
This past month, Business and Management Associate Professor Dr. Menbere Workie was
author of two important publications on the topic of Capital Flight. Business and
Management students were able to gain a sneak peek into his writing process last year
when he presented the topic during the Research Seminar series hosted by the department.
We recently interviewed Dr. Workie on his accomplishment.
WVPU: Dr. Workie, you’ve recently published quite a bit on the topic of capital flight.
Can you tell us a little more about your articles and book project? How would you
explain your research to someone who doesn’t have a background in this topic?
Menbere: This is not one of the easiest topics to explain to people who do not have a background
but let me try the following. For an economy that is open for international trade
and investment, the following rules apply for its balance of payments: The sum of
the current account and capital and financial accounts must be equal to zero.
If not, then the sum of the current account, capital and financial account, and official
reserves must be equal to zero. If this doesn’t hold, then the following must hold
by definition: The sum of the current account, capital and financial account, official
reserves and errors and omissions must now be zero. The last item, which is referred
to as the “balancing item”, consist of two parts: errors and omissions. The errors
part indicates transactions that have been recorded but they have been recorded in
wrong sub-accounts in the balance of payments. The omissions part indicates transactions
have not been reported at all.
Unfortunately, central banks and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
do report the overall errors and omissions for each country without splitting the
two, which makes it harder to distinguish the impact of errors from those of the omissions.
WVPU: Tell us a bit about your research profile in general, and how you first became
passionate about studying capital flight specifically.
Menbere: Since I studied both economics and finance, I do try to study wide-range of issues
in finance and economics and try to understand the “economics of finance” and the
“finance of economics”. My Supervisor, Prof. Stephan Klasen who was a graduate of
Harvard University and supervised by the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Amartya Sen, has his
fingerprints in shaping my research areas and I will remain indebted to him. Most
of the projects I have been involved in revolve around exploring business cycle phenomenon,
the dynamics of income disparity, external imbalances, capital flight, and the labor
market.
It was during my PhD days at the University of Munich [that I became interested in
capital flight]. One of the fundamental questions in economics is to investigate the
reasons behind why some countries are rich while others are poor. Turning to the question
of capital flight, this is a fascinating research topic for two main reasons.
First, as the world economy gets intertwined and there is a fairly high mobility of
capital and goods across borders, the size of misreporting has also been elevating.
Second, capital flight can lead to tax evasion and hampers domestic investment, reduces
the process of capital accumulation, and eventually leads to sluggish economic growth.
WVPU: How did this publication come about? How long have you been working on this
project?
Menbere: This paper was a part of the project, which I was the principal investigator: “Capital
Flight and its Impact on the Slovak economy” and was financed by the Slovak Development
and Research Agency, which ran during 2015-2019 period. As a part of this project,
we published three articles and one book:
Workie T. M., Siranova, M. and Ostrihon, F. (2021). “Does capital flight harm domestic
investment?: An empirical investigation from a panel of emerging and advanced Europe”.
In Journal of Economics/Ekonomický časopis, 2021, vol. 69, no. 8, pp. 135-157.
Siranova, M. and Workie T. M. (2018). “Exploding net errors and omissions as a capital
flight phenomenon: the case of Slovakia” Applied Economics, 2018, vol. 50, no. 16,
pp. 1866-1884.
Siranova, M. and Workie T. M., and Fisera, B. (2021). “Creating the illicit capital
flows network in Europe – Do the net errors and omissions follow an economic pattern?”
In International Review of Economics and Finance, 2021, vol. 71, pp. 955-973. ISSN
1059-0560.
Workie, T.M. (2018). “Overshooting the Maastricht Criteria: External Imbalances and
Income Convergence in the European Union”. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2018.
221 p. ISBN 978-1-53613-585-5
WVPU: What were some key findings from your research? Did anything surprise you?
Menbere: Previous studies based on the Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2007) international database
on the external wealth of nations, Zucman (2013) estimated that approximately 8% of
the global financial wealth of households has been held in tax havens and that a significant
proportion of this wealth has gone missing.
An alarming piece of evidence from our study’s perspective is that the findings indicate
a significant proportion of European securities have “no identifiable owner”. One
way to detect the magnitude of capital flight and its ramifications on economic growth
and investment is to take errors and omissions from the balance of payments data.
High and volatile errors and omissions indicate either over-reporting of foreign liabilities
or under-reporting of foreign assets.
Recently leaked documents (the Luxembourg leaks or “LuxLeaks” of 2014, the Swiss leaks
in 2015, the Panama Papers of 2016, and the Paradise Papers of 2018) exposed a number
of individuals and firms, predominantly from advanced economies, who have held their
wealth in tax havens. This only confirms the severity of the problem related to illicit
financial flows in advanced economies.
These unrecorded or misreported flows reduce domestic investment by reducing the capital-to-out
ratio and compressed capital accumulations lead to sluggish long-run economic growth.
Our studies, based on errors and omissions and the residual model and panel OLS and
GMM estimations, suggest the significant impact of capital flight on investment in
the European economies we investigated.
WVPU: Which resources do you use to locate reliable data for your research?
Menbere: I use the Eurostat database, World Bank World Economic Indicators, IMF World Economic
Outlook, OECD database, the Groningen Growth and Development Centre database and Pen
World Tables among others
WVPU: What recommendations do you have for a student who is interested in studying
this and similar topics?
Menbere: I have been with WVPU since 2014 (as an adjunct during 2014-2016) and a full-time
faculty since 2019. What I have witnessed during all these years is that we really
have talented students. However, talent alone is only a necessary condition and not
a sufficient one. When talent merges with intellectual curiosity, it then becomes
a great tool to conduct research. Students can start from modest background, such
as literature review and replication research.
The two can help them to get the “smell” of what it takes to produce academic work.
Learning a good software program is an inevitable part of the beginning of a true
research and there are econometric software programs that are freely available as
student copies. The combination of talent, curiosity, and a sound knowledge of an
econometric software program should significantly facilitate an entry to the research
world. This also must be the starting point to write their thesis.
February
Leading the Fight against Workplace Bullying
Dr. Eva Zedlacher, Assistant Professor of Management, works on two grants from the
Lower Austria Chamber of Labor (AK NÖ) to address “third-party action” in preventing
workplace bullying. She sat down with our team to discuss her work.
Figure 1“An allem Unfug, der passiert, sind nicht etwa nur die schuld, die ihn tun,
sondern auch die, die ihn nicht verhindern” E. Kaestner (All the nonsense that happens
is not only the fault of those who do it, but also of those who do not prevent it).
Background
Dr. Zedlacher’s research in third-party awareness and intervention, so called “third-party
action”, could be effective at fighting workplace bullying at its core. She has found
that in order to make a difference, third parties must first be aware of the dynamics
of workplace bullying and their own responsibility to stop it.
Workplace bullying is often subtle and not easy to identify for third parties, but
even when bullying escalates and becomes more visible, it has been found that peers
and organizations often do nothing about it, or even blame the target’s personality
or behavior for what has happened. This lack of support often leads to further escalation
and detrimental health consequences. The “failure to intervene” is not just a moral
issue; organizations in Austria also have the legal “duty of care” (“Fürsorgepflicht”)
to provide a harassment-free workplace.
WVPU: Dr. Zedlacher, you have now received two grants from the Lower Austria Chamber
of Labor for two separate projects. Can you tell us a bit more about them?
Dr. Zedlacher: For the first, smaller project supported by the Chamber of Labor (AK
NÖ) , I was particularly interested in whether prior work performance ratings (e.g.
high or low) of the targets affected the helping intentions of the third parties,
and whether/how third parties attribute blame to a single (f)actor; or whether they
engage in so-called “multiblaming”. We know from previous research that HR professionals
in particular often consider bullying complaints as stemming from negative performance
feedback. In turn, these complaints are often trivialized and the targets are blamed
for what happened to them (“victim blaming”). The problem with that is that ignorance
or trivialization of a complaint may escalate the problem, as targets may feel even
more bullied due to the lack of support.
Allison Snowden, a recent MBA graduate, was an integral part of my work in determining
the effect of performance ratings and blame patterns on the perception of bullying.
She used much of our research in her own thesis, which I am happy to report she successfully
defended this past year. We have presented preliminary results at various conferences.
We can show that people often engage in blaming different (f)actors for a negative
and complex event, and that victim blaming is still very prevalent among third parties.
One of the implications of our findings for organizational practice is that any training
should make people reflect and question their (immediate) blaming tendencies. Rather
than individualizing the problem, practitioners as experts should also point to structural
causes and measures that might be a cause or a solution to the problem.
The second, larger project with the AK NÖ is ongoing. Here the focus lies more on
intervention by direct bystanders in workplace bullying incidents, including electronic
media. We will conduct video experiments with fictional scenarios to investigate how
direct bystanders respond to different forms of misconduct at work, in particular
when the interaction takes place via emails on smartphones. The final goal of this
project is to produce an interactive video training tool for workforce members and
trainers to become more aware of the (negative) effects of new forms of interactions,
including ways to intervene effectively. I am working with two great film producers
who support me with casting of actors/actresses and the plot for the final movie.
They will also program the final interactive training.
Anastasiia Hizenko, an excellent undergraduate Management student, has been assisting
in this project. She has been with me since last year her support in literature research,
administration and pre-testing is invaluable. Reza Noori Khoondabi, a graduate Psychology
student, recently joined our team in January. He will be an additional help for implementing
the experiments into the final survey and will also assist with preliminary data analysis.
I am very happy to have both of these great students in my project.
I am very thankful that Webster Vienna supports faculty research through scholarships
for research assistants! I believe it’s also important to recognize the effort and
dedication of AK NÖ of not only supporting work force services, but also for investing
into employment relationships. Without their grant funding, such research designs
with video experiments would not be possible.
WVPU: Your research touches on cyberbullying as a new theme in workplace harassment.
In the digital age and with more work conducted online, it is easy to see how this
can become problematic. What are some of the qualities of cyberbullying that make
it different from other types of workplace bullying?
Dr. Zedlacher: Cyberbullying in particular can be detrimental because victims can
be haunted by attacks. For instance, a single harassing message on Instagram is posted
only once, but can be shared with a diverse mass and read repeatedly. Less dramatic
and very, generally speaking, the digitalization of our work interactions may provide
grounds for misbehavior and misunderstandings, which might require some ethics guidelines.
Imagine you receive a late-night email from your boss on your work smartphone with
some new urgent tasks. Some might feel harassed and wonder, “Why can’t s/he wait till
the next day with the new tasks”; some might simply ignore the late mail anyway.
WVPU: This is fascinating work and obviously can be applied to real-world scenarios.
Where could one learn more about your work before you finish these two projects?
Dr. Zedlacher: My latest book chapter in the “Handbook of Research on Cyberbullying and Online Harassment in the Workplace” is a good place
to start. There my co-author Martina Hartner-Tiefenthaler from TU Wien and I discuss
more about whether the digitalization of work is dangerous for ethical climates at
work and how to prevent cyberbullying in the digital workspace.
Civility Values and Cyberbullying Prevention in the Digital Workspace: How to Foster
an Ethical Climate of Respect
Due to her outstanding contribution to the field, Assistant Professor of Economics
Dr. Maria Teresa Punzi was invited by the Asian Development Bank to contribute to
their upcoming book titled Debt Sustainability in Asia. In late November, she had
the opportunity to present her chapter on household debt during the Bank’s international
conference, held virtually this year. Dr. Punzi shared her experience with us:
WVPU: Earlier this year you were handpicked to contribute to the Asian Development
Bank’s book on debt sustainability. Can you tell us a little about how that came to
pass and the topic(s) you were asked to cover?
Dr. Punzi: In March of this year, the Asian Development Bank approached me about writing
a chapter on household debt in Asia for a book they plan to publish in 2021. I have
published extensively on this topic in the past and was asked to contribute based
on my expertise on the subject. I started setting my idea on how to organize the study
for my chapter in April and met several times with staff from the Asian Development
Bank to help organize and shape the book. The book itself, titled "Debt Sustainability
in Asia", will consist of 19 chapters with contributors from around the world.
WVPU: What were some of the key findings that emerged as you studied household debt
in Asia?
Dr. Punzi: The project was aimed at studying and assessing the household debt in Asia
during the last decade. Many Asian economies show a large increase in their household
debt-to-GDP ratio, similar to the United States just before the global financial crisis
in 2007. For example, South Korea reached the household debt-to-GDP ratio around 98%
by the end of 2019 (the U.S. household debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 99% by the end of
2007).
Household leverage has also been high or rising in the People’s Republic of China,
Malaysia, and Thailand, posing high risk in terms of financial stability. The study
finds that the Asian region shows that an increase in household debt initially increases
real GDP, but such a rise is very short-lived as real GDP begins to decline after
1 year. This phenomenon indicates that elevated household debt is a precursor of economic
recessions.
WVPU: How serious do you think these current shifts in the household debt-to-GDP could
be?
Dr. Punzi: The topic is very important. An excessive level of indebtedness in a country
could pose a risk of default as the debt becomes unsustainable and households stop
servicing their debt. When that happens, banks will face serious problems due to balance
sheet distress. More seriously, high level of household debt-to-GDP ratio could even
lead to a deep recession.
The problem of high household debt level can be aggravated during the COVID-19 pandemic,
as many households have suffered from a sudden decrease in income due to seized working
hours, furloughs and outright unemployment, making their ability to repay the debt
difficult.
WVPU: Can you share some final thoughts on this topic and any potential future implications
your study may have?
Dr. Punzi: Since the global financial crisis, policy-makers have worked diligently
to develop instruments to avoid excessive indebtedness and consequential recession.
However, many countries in Asia have been accumulating large levels of debt, posing
questions as to the effectiveness of the latest instruments proposed by policy-makers.
I would suggest that more research should be done to lean against the credit cycle
if we are to avoid future recessions.
December
Collaboration is key! This is one of the guiding principles of the Business and Management
Department where colleagues from across disciplines and organizations are encouraged
to join forces.
Most recently, Associate Professor of Economics and B&M Department Head Dr. Nikolaos
Antonakakis teamed up with WVPU adjunct instructors Dr. Hossein Hassani and Dr. Mansi
Ghodsi to act as guest editors for a special issue in the journal of Big Data and
Cognitive Computing entitled "Big Data and UN Sustainable Development Goals".
Drs. Hassani and Ghodsi have been adjuncts in the Business and Management Department
for several years and have contributed greatly to the learning and development of
WVPU students. The current and on-going collaboration on the Special Issue aims to
provide a unique set of publications that identify the values and impacts of Big Data
on sustainable development in the context of each of the 17 UN SDGs and to contribute
valuable insights for further research. Happy reading!
November
Not even a global pandemic is enough to stop our faculty from publishing! Congratulations
to Dr. Menbere Workie Tiruneh, Associate Professor of Finance, for his successful
publication of “Creating the illicit capital flows network in Europe – Do the net
errors and omissions follow an economic pattern?” in esteemed journal International
Review of Economics and Finance. Current students and faculty can access the article through WVPU library databases.
October
Prof. Dr. Maria Madlberger, Professor of Marketing, is announcing the recent publication
of the chapter "Paid Advertising on Social Media: Antecedents and Impacts of General
and Specific Attitudes" in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
book series. The co-author of this study is Lisa Kraemmer, a former WVPU student who
has graduated with a BA in Management. The chapter is based on Ms. Kraemmer’s bachelor
thesis as well as a scholarly paper published and presented at the 15th International
Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies in 2019.
The paper at hand addresses a topical issue in digital marketing, one of Dr. Madlberger’s
research interests. The study investigates how social media advertising can positively
influence consumers’ intention to purchase the advertised product. It particularly
examines two levels of attitude which have not been considered in related studies,
i.e., general attitude towards advertising on social media and the specific attitude
towards an individual advertisement on social media. The study that is based on a
consumer survey reveals that purchase intention of a product advertised on social
media is higher if consumers’ attitude on both levels is positive whereby specific
attitude plays a larger role. Further, the study identifies perceived enjoyment of
the social media platform, advertisement meaningfulness, and brand familiarity as
relevant factors that influence attitudes. Hence, it points at the need for a clear
conceptual differentiation between both levels of attitudes and allows useful conclusions
for companies on the effectiveness of social media advertising. Firms are recommended
to exploit the promotional potential of social media advertising as well as address
the need for enjoyment and clarity of ads.
Digital marketing is a research area and management practice that stands at the frontiers
of modern marketing. The extremely dynamic technological progress calls for constant
research and innovation in this area. Students can learn more about digital marketing
in various bachelor and master programs, such as the BA in Management with an emphasis
in Marketing and the MSc. in Marketing.
WVPU pursues a strong integration of research and teaching in various ways. The publication
of exceptional student work in scholarly outlets is a highlight in this context and
a win/win situation for the university, faculty and particularly the students who
conduct research on an extraordinarily high level. WVPU is proud of students like
Lisa Kraemmer who go this extra mile and manage to contribute research that can finally
be published in academic outlets.
September
Business and management department head Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis’ recent, collaborative
research has been published in several economics and finance journals. We sat down
with him recently to discuss his research and its potential implications.
Dr. Antonakakis: The decision for a common European currency constitutes a landmark
in the history of international financial markets. Despite the fact that the adoption
of the Euro entails both advantages and challenges, its unequivocal importance in
international finance has sparked — among academics, policy makers and other pundits
— keen interest in its potential impact on decision making and macroeconomic policy
formulation. The relative strength of the Euro against other major currencies is,
of course, of particular importance. In effect, studying Euro’s interaction with other
currencies should help attain a better understanding of global economic developments.
In this respect, our study is largely motivated by research related to currency interdependence
and contagion issues, especially, in the light of the introduction of the Euro. We
are mainly interested in the position of the Euro as an international currency. That
is to say, in its relative strength and its co‐movements with other major currencies,
across time.
WVPU: How would you describe contagion to a layperson?
Dr. Antonakakis: In economics and finance, a contagion effect explains the possibility
of spread of economic crisis or boom across countries or regions. This phenomenon
may occur both at a domestic level as well as at an international level. The failure
of Lehman Brothers as well as the collapse of the housing market in the United States
is an example of a domestic contagion that led to the global financial crisis in 2008.
Dr. Antonakakis: Since the increased financialisation of the oil market over the last
15 years, a growing literature has emerged examining the time-varying relationship
and spillover effects among oil and financial markets. Interestingly enough almost
all studies examine solely the oil-stock market nexus, without taking other asset
classes, such as commodities and metals, into account, that are widely used by investors
in their portfolio diversification strategies. Thus, in this study we attempted to
capture the intricate relationships among oil and fourteen asset volatilities, which
belong to four different asset classes (stocks, commodities, exchange rates and macroeconomic
conditions). The main objective of this study was to determine the optimal hedging
strategies and optimal portfolio weights for implied volatility portfolios among the
above-mentioned assets. As such our study’s target audience is mainly investors that
adopt diversification strategies when forming portfolios that combine oil and other
asset classes.
WVPU: This study is largely about hedging – its effects, causes, unintended consequences,
etc. What is hedging and why should a person who works outside of the finance sector
have a basic understanding of what it is?
Dr. Antonakakis: Hedging is a type of investment intended to reduce the risk of adverse
price movements in an asset. Most people have engaged in hedging, whether they know
it or not. For instance, when you buy life insurance to support your family in the
case of your death, this is a hedge. You pay money in monthly sums for the coverage
provided by an insurance company.
WVPU: The final article is perhaps the most ‘inside baseball’ of the three, by which
I mean it seems to be about research methods for fellow academics who conduct research
in this field. The article is titled “Refined Measures of Dynamic Connectedness based on Time-Varying Parameter Vector
Autoregressions.” The abstract suggests that it builds upon techniques previously conceived by other
academics. Maybe you could tell us a little about this study and, perhaps more broadly
about how researchers build upon previous studies.
Dr. Antonakakis: Among the three studies, indeed this is the most technical one and,
as such, mostly relevant to researchers conducting research in this field. In particular,
the main objective of this study is to improve and enhance an already existing methodology
in an attempt to capture more accurately the intricate evolution of interrelationships
among financial variables. Building upon a very well established empirical methodology
of Diebold and Yılmaz (2009, 2012, 2014) who introduced a variety of connectedness
measures, we provide a methodological extension and put our framework into practice
by investigating dynamic connectedness measures of the four most traded foreign exchange
rates. Comparing the results between the existing approach and our proposed methodology
there was suggestive evidence of improvement in the analysis by adopting our new enhanced
approach. The process of building upon the existing findings in the literature and
try to improve them is a typical process in academia among researchers who engage
in lengthy conversations of sorts and rely on others’ findings in an attempt to increase
the level of understanding in the field.
You can access Dr. Antonakakis’ recently published articles using the direct links
provided in the text above.
August
Launching externally funded research project: Harnessing Social Capital with Community
Stakeholders in Infrastructure Projects
Approximately US$80 trillion will be invested in infrastructure projects over the
next decades.
However, the track record of this type of project is extremely poor — ineffective
community stakeholder engagement often causes excessive delays and budget overruns,
project abandonment and infrastructure that is not fit-for-purpose. Together with
researchers from University of Sydney, Australia, Dr. Pernille Eskerod will examine
how infrastructure project teams can engage more effectively with community stakeholders.
Using stakeholder theory and social capital theory, together with analyses of practices
in real-world cases, the research team is going to examine how project teams can build
social capital in the form of goodwill towards the infrastructure project with community
stakeholders and how they mobilize this to positively impact project performance.
The research project formally launched at Webster Vienna in August 2020 — and one
of our master students, Mauro Ortiz, is supporting Dr. Eskerod as a trainee scholarship
student from late August.
An Australian pilot study has already taken place in the realm of the research project.
This will be followed by two case studies of infrastructure projects, one in Australia
and one in Europe, in order to enable cross-case analyses. The research team at Webster
Vienna has to provide the European case study as well as a literature review.
The research project is partially funded by the global professional organization,
Project Management Institute (PMI). It is the third time Dr. Eskerod has received
an international research grant from PMI's Sponsored Research Program.
July
Last year the business and management department welcomed Dr. Ronald Hochreiter, Associate
Professor of Finance, to Webster Vienna. Dr. Hochreiter completed his Habilitation
in Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business five
years ago, having earned his PhD in Business Informatics from the University of Vienna
in 2005. Dr. Hochreiter has written extensively on a variety of research topics related
to his studies, from finance to data mining, and over the years has taught courses
on data analytics, quantitative and qualitative methods, hedge funds, and management.
Recently, Dr. Hochreiter co-authored an article in the Journal Frontiers in Medicine.
The study, “The Supply of Rheumatology Specialist Care in Real Life. Results of a Nationwide
Survey and Analysis of Supply and Needs,” looked at the current supply of rheumatologists in Austria to determine if existing
supply is meeting patient demand. The co-authors used a questionnaire, which was distributed
to more than 200 Austrian rheumatologists and later evaluated by the researchers.
The study’s questionnaire hoped to address gaps in previous studies, which often use
rheumatologist headcounts in a given region or country. In reality, rheumatologists
may spend only part of their working hours treating rheumatic patients, as they may
have other responsibilities. For example, physicians devote some of their workday
to administrative tasks or caring for non-rheumatic patients. The study’s findings
suggest that the current supply is inadequate in Austria, meaning there are more patients
than available rheumatologists. “Of those, very few had contracts with the public health insurance providers and
operated solely as a practice in an office setting,” Dr. Hochreiter pointed out.
As a data scientist, Dr. Hochreiter was most intimately involved with processing the
data acquired from the questionnaire. “This is a great example of the kind of research to which my data science background
allows me to contribute. After all, I’m not a medical professional myself.”
WVPU students learn valuable quantitative skills in their statistics, math, and research
methods courses during their studies. The broad, liberal arts background of their
degrees introduces students to interdisciplinary work, revealing how seemingly disparate
fields can collaborate on exciting research, like in this study. “Some of the most promising research I read involves creative cooperation between
academics from different backgrounds. I’m happy we introduce this concept of interconnectedness
to our students early in their studies.”
Dr. Eskerod Contributes to Oxford Research Encyclopedias
Prof. Dr. Pernille Eskerod, Professor of Management, is thrilled that her recent contribution
to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia has been published. Her chapter, titled “A Stakeholder Perspective: Origins and Core Concepts,” describes the nascent beginnings of stakeholder management theory as conceived in
the mid-20th Century in both Sweden and the United States, and tracks the developments
thereof over the ensuing decades. She roots her chapter in the field’s seminal works
and authors, describes salient case studies, and points to opportunities for future
research.
Stakeholder management theory presumes that the relationships formed and fostered
between and among stakeholders are the true drivers of value creation. Dr Eskerod
expands upon this in her abstract: “Assuming that the fundamental driver of value creation is stakeholder relationships,
managing those relationships well is a prerequisite for obtaining and sustaining success
in all businesses, regardless of the success measures applied.”
In the 1960s, stakeholder management was a departure from standard thought about how
successful companies prospered. Stakeholder management theory expanded the definition
of value creation from one which focused on company profits and financial value for
investors to recognize the inherent value, whether quantifiable or not, of everything
from longstanding supply chain relationships to the dynamic between management and
labor unions.
Webster Vienna students learn about stakeholder management theory at both the undergraduate
and graduate level in courses such as Management Theory and Practices, Business Ethics,
Change Management, Managerial Policies and Strategies, and Strategy and Competition;
and some students even choose to write their respective theses on the topic.
You can read Dr. Eskerod’s entire chapter at the link provided. “I’ve been working on it for years,” she shares, “and I am so happy that it’s finally available for everyone to read!”
May
Dr. Ronald Hochreiter, Associate Professor of Finance, is excited to announce that
he will be part of a project organized by COST, the European Cooperation in Science
and Technology, which has recently received a green light to begin its activities.
The venture, titled FinTech and Artificial Intelligence in Finance – Towards a transparent
financial industry, will explore the topic of transparency as it relates to the financial
sector’s use of existing and emerging financial technology, also known as FinTech.
As the project description states, “globally, more than $100 billion [worth] of investments
have been made into FinTech companies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) since 2010,
and […] Europe should become a global hub for FinTech, with the economy being able
to benefit from the European Single Market.”
The project, also known at COST as an “Action,” intends to bring together academia,
industry, as well as public and governmental organizations to look at these challenging
issues in an interdisciplinary way. There is hope that, through the Action’s work,
the public will also better grasp the consequences (both intended and unintended)
of artificial intelligence-enabled FinTech.
The project has been accepted and will run from September 2020 until September 2024.
Dr. Hochreiter is looking forward to his involvement. “I will serve on the Management
Committee for Austria and hope to take on additional roles, too, as things get underway,”
he told us.
Dr. Hochreiter has written extensively on a variety of research topics related to
finance and data mining, and over the years has taught courses on data analytics,
quantitative and qualitative methods, hedge funds, and management. He often teaches
graduate courses at WVPU in our MSc in Finance program, including Institutions and
Financial Marketsand Financial Modeling.
Last year the business and management department welcomed Dr. Ronald Hochreiter, Associate
Professor of Finance, to Webster Vienna. Dr. Hochreiter completed his Habilitation
in Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business five
years ago, having earned his PhD in Business Informatics from the University of Vienna
in 2005. Dr. Hochreiter has written extensively on a variety of research topics related
to his studies, from finance to data mining, and over the years has taught courses
on data analytics, quantitative and qualitative methods, hedge funds, and management.
Recently, Dr. Hochreiter co-authored an article in the Journal Frontiers in Medicine.
The study, “The Supply of Rheumatology Specialist Care in Real Life. Results of a Nationwide
Survey and Analysis of Supply and Needs,” looked at the current supply of rheumatologists in Austria to determine if existing
supply is meeting patient demand. The co-authors used a questionnaire, which was distributed
to more than 200 Austrian rheumatologists and later evaluated by the researchers.
The study’s questionnaire hoped to address gaps in previous studies, which often use
rheumatologist headcounts in a given region or country. In reality, rheumatologists
may spend only part of their working hours treating rheumatic patients, as they may
have other responsibilities. For example, physicians devote some of their workday
to administrative tasks or caring for non-rheumatic patients. The study’s findings
suggest that the current supply is inadequate in Austria, meaning there are more patients
than available rheumatologists. “Of those, very few had contracts with the public health insurance providers and operated
solely as a practice in an office setting,” Dr. Hochreiter pointed out.
As a data scientist, Dr. Hochreiter was most intimately involved with processing the
data acquired from the questionnaire. “This is a great example of the kind of research to which my data science background
allows me to contribute. After all, I’m not a medical professional myself.”
WVPU students learn valuable quantitative skills in their statistics, math, and research
methods courses during their studies. The broad, liberal arts background of their
degrees introduces students to interdisciplinary work, revealing how seemingly disparate
fields can collaborate on exciting research, like in this study. “Some of the most promising research I read involves creative cooperation between
academics from different backgrounds. I’m happy we introduce this concept of interconnectedness
to our students early in their studies.”
The Transmission of Euro Area Interest Rate Shocks to Asia -- Do Effects Differ When
Nominal Interest Rates are Negative?
Assistant Professor of Economics, Dr. Maria-Teresa Punzi, recently co-authored “The
Transmission of Euro Area Interest Rate Shocks to Asia -- Do Effects Differ When Nominal
Interest Rates are Negative?” The article was published in Emerging Markets Finance & Trade.
We sat down with her to discuss her research more in-depth and to see if she had any
tips for students currently working on their thesis projects.
WVPU: How did this publication come about? How long have you been working on this
topic/project?
MTP: This article was recently published in Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, an
empirical journal that covers research in economics, finance, international business,
and international relations. This includes studies like ours; it seeks policy implications
by comparing the economic and financial circumstances of emerging economies with those
of developing or advanced ones.
I have been working on this project for a very long time. Indeed, my co-authors and
I navigated five rounds of revisions. It took more than a year from the submission
of the first draft to the publication.
This research project’s central thesis was initially presented at a prestigious conference
in Tokyo in December 2016. The conference, organized by the Asian Development Bank
Institute (ADBI), focused on the implications of ultra-low and/or negative interest
rates in Asia. At the conference, I met Dr. Pornpinun Chantapacdepong of the Bank
of Thailand, who is one of my coauthors. Once back in Vienna, I also joined forces
with Austrian colleagues, including both Dr. Martin Feldkircher of the Austrian National
Bank and Prof. Florian Huber of the University of Salzburg.
WVPU: Can you tell us a little more about your article? How would you explain your
research to someone who doesn’t have a background on this specific topic?
MTP: The European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of Japan (BOJ), and several smaller
European monetary authorities (e.g., Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden’s respective
authorities) have set negative key interest rates. The standard policy would be to
set key interest rates at either zero or in positive territory. The ECB was the first
major central bank to adopt a so-called negative interest rate policy (NIRP) by lowering
its facility deposit rate to −0.1% in June 2014. A further cut in 2016 brought the
deposit rate down to −0.4%. Other major central banks, such as the BOJ, have followed
by also setting negative key interest rates.
This paper analyses the economic and financial consequences of the ECB’s new monetary
policy on the other side of the world. How does the ECB’s establishment of a negative
rate affect GDP, inflation, interest rates, and other variables in Asian countries?
Is there any effect at all? Do they experience any consequences from this European
policy?
It’s hard to explain our results in just a few sentences, but I’ll try. We found that
the negative interest rate policy implemented in Europe mainly affected the long-term
yield in many Asian countries. This effect suggests that the international portfolio
balancing channel was the main transmission channel, as investors had been moving
capital as a result of the yield differentials.
WVPU: Which resources do you use to locate reliable data for your research?
MTP: We have used monthly statistics from central banks. Dr. Pornpinun Chantapacdepong,
working at the Bank of Thailand, was able to collect the data from Thailand and many
other Asian countries. Her data collection contribution was very important.
WVPU: What recommendations do you have for a student who is interested in studying
this topic?
MTP: It is important to collect data on a monthly basis because NIRP has only been
applied since 2014. It would also be very interesting to study the impact of these
negative interest rate policies at the banking level in addition to the macro-financial
level.
January
Webster Vienna Assistant Professor Presented Research Papers at Prestigious Finance
of Climate Change Conference
Assistant Professor of Economics, Dr. Maria-Teresa Punzi, presented one of her research
papers at the recent Finance of Climate Change conference in Paris, France. We sat
down with her recently after her return to Vienna to discuss her research paper and
time at the conference.
WVPU: Tell us a little about how your participation at the conference came about,
as well as a bit about the paper you presented.
MTP: The conference organizers invited me to present one of my research papers, which
I gladly accepted. The title of the paper that piqued their interest is “Do Banks
Price Environmental Risk? Evidence from a Quasi Natural Experiment in China”. Since
I first presented it, this paper has received considerable attention. This wasn’t
the first time I had been asked to present it. In fact, its reception has been an
encouraging sign for the trajectory of my research.
WVPU: Was this paper co-authored? With whom did you work on it?
MTP: Yes, my co-authors are Bihong Huang, from the Asian Development Bank Institute
(Japan), and Yu Wu, from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (Chengdu,
China). We’ve found that lending and default rates both increase when the government
tightens climate change regulations in order to reduce pollution. We tested this hypothesis
with empirical exercises applied to China, where the government responded in 2013
to rampant pollution by implementing a so-called “Action Plan” aimed at prevention.
We also found that Chinese banks have increased the lending rate to firms targeted
by the Action Plan, and due to the higher cost of borrowing, many firms have defaulted
on their obligations.
WVPU: How did the paper you presented compare with others at the conference?
MTP: While many papers at the conference study the impact of natural disasters on
the financial sector, this paper instead has focused on the financial implications
of environmental regulations. This is a very important message for policymakers because
protecting the environment and reducing pollution is fundamental for our current and
future life, but some current policies can bring distress in the financial sector.
WVPU: Did anything else stand out about this conference?
MTP: Overall, the conference was super interesting. Speakers came from throughout
Europe as well as the United States and Australia. The keynote speaker was Prof. Harrison
Hong from Columbia University, and his presentation, in particular, was fascinating.
Plus, the event was held in the center of Paris at Palais Brongniart, the historical
Paris stock exchange. I enjoyed this conference so much. The organization was amazing,
and it was great to share my research with experts in the field.
December
Research Seminar by Dr Workie
On Monday, December 2nd, Webster Vienna's business and management department faculty
and graduate students in the MSc in Finance program were treated to a presentation
by Dr. Menbere Workie about his current scholarship. The research seminar, entitled
„Do Illicit Financial Flows Harm Economic Growth in Europe?“, delved into the magnitude
and knock-on effects of illicit financial flows.
Dr. Workie shared that his preliminary results suggest such flows, often associated
with the developing world, have become a worldwide concern, partially due to the increasing
mobility of goods, services, and capital.
The seminar also touched on the Panama and Paradise Papers, the scope of which reveals
the relative size and sophistication of such illicit financial flows in advanced economies.
it concluded with questions from the audience and a robust discussion about the topic,
including how it relates to other faculty members’ research.
November
Webster Vienna Professor Dr. Punzi: Low Inflation Rates Generate Higher Income Inequality
Just because courses have ended for the summer doesn't mean that everything has come
to a stop here at Palais Wenkheim.
On Wednesday, July 24th two business and management department graduate students defended
their master’s theses. Ms. Debora Koleva, of Bulgaria, presented her thesis about
the dynamics of destination image and experience, using the Bulgarian resort town
of Sunny Beach as a case study. Ms. Katharina Vodrazka explored how social media ad
content affects user engagement on Facebook.
Both students did an exceptional job. Department Head Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis congratulated
them both for “their excellent and thorough work.” Dr. Maria Madlberger, who supervised
both theses, was equally pleased. “Both of you gave very well-paced and articulate
defense presentations and the theses themselves are well-written,” she told Debora
and Katharina.
We wish our graduates all the best in their future endeavors, and we welcome them
as the latest to join the ever-growing club of Webster Vienna Private University alumni.
All graduate students at WVPU give a defense presentation as the culmination of their
studies here at Palais Wenkheim. It’s an opportunity to share the fruits of their
labor with those in the department who have not been involved with their research
project, including fellow students, who are encouraged to attend.
July
Dr. Punzi visits Malaysia to Launch Project with SEACEN Centre
Following the success of a 2017 research project (pictured above), Dr. Maria Teresa
Punzi, Assistant Professor of Economics, was invited again to the SEACEN Centre in
Malaysia to lead a new project. SEACEN is an international organization that provides
courses and consulting for central banks in Southeast Asia.
Dr. Punzi is developing a project titled "The Distributional Impact of Monetary Policy
in the SEACEN Member Economies." The extensive research project will require Dr. Punzi,
who is the project leader, and her collaborators to coordinate information from 9
central banks in the region: Cambodia, India, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Taiwan, Thailand,
Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.
“From this project, we aim to write a book with a case study for each individual country,”
Dr. Punzi told us, adding that she is “looking forward to working with colleagues
and fellow researchers from all of the countries represented.”
We wish her the best of luck with the project and look forward to reporting when the
book is completed. Stay tuned for updates on Dr. Punzi’s project here on our website.
If you’re a current student and looking for an opportunity to work with Dr. Punzi
on her other research into income and wealth inequality, you have until the end of
July to apply for a training scholarship with her.
April
B&M Welcomes Dr. Hochreiter and His Passion for Political Science and Quantitative
Methods
The business and management department welcomed Dr. Ronald Hochreiter, Associate Professor
of Finance, to Webster Vienna in early March. Dr. Hochreiter completed his Habilitation
in Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business five
years ago, but earned his PhD in Business Informatics from the University of Vienna
in 2005. Dr. Hochreiter has written extensively on a variety of research topics related
to his studies, from finance to data mining, and over the years has taught courses
on data analytics, quantitative and qualitative methods, hedge funds, and management.
We sat down with Dr. Hochreiter recently to welcome him to Webster and to discuss
his background in academia, his recent research pursuits, and his plans for the future
at Webster.
WVPU: First and foremost, welcome to Webster! We’re really excited that you’re here.
You’ve been involved in academia for almost your entire career. Did you grow up wanting
to be a professor and professional researcher? If not, how did it happen?
Dr. Hochreiter: I am really happy to join Webster and am looking forward to continuing
research and teaching in the fields of algorithmic/computational/quantitative finance,
data science and decision science here. Interestingly, when I was younger, I actually
never planned a career in academia but rather wanted to work for the European Union
as I love the concept of a unified Europe. I studied political science in addition
to business informatics and my initial plan was to complete my MA in political science
and do my PhD in this area right after completing my MSc in business informatics;
however, just a few days before I actually graduated my BI master’s thesis advisor
offered me a PhD position at the Department of Statistics.
Initially, I intended to decline the offer, but following a week of careful consideration
I accepted. During this period of reflection I realized that the field of operations
research and computational management science, i.e. the quantification of decision
management under uncertainty, is applicable to many different areas -including political
decision taking. My research is biased by this in the direction of hands-on approaches
to difficult problems i.e. I love translating complex quantitative methods for a variety
of applications.
WVPU: You’ve taught dozens of courses over the years on topics relating to your expertise
and academic interests. Is there any one course which stands out as especially near
and dear to your heart? Which course at Webster are you most looking forward to teaching?
Dr. Hochreiter: The course I really love is currently entitled “Quantitative Methods
in Finance” where I basically teach how to become a Quant in the financial industry
– both in hedge funds as well as investment banks. It is a very hands-on lecture that
has been developed by me since 2006.
I am also in the process of creating a textbook out of this content which should be
ready within the next six to nine months. I am definitely looking forward to integrating
many parts of this lecture in two of my upcoming courses at Webster, i.e. "FINC 6290
Mergers and Acquisitions" as well as "FINC 5830 Institutions and Financial Markets".
WVPU: Research has been a salient component to your career. To the extent that you
can share it with us, which topics or projects are currently taking up your time?
What can we expect to see from you in the near future?
Dr. Hochreiter: I will basically streamline my research to applying machine learning
and artificial intelligence methods to various applications in business, finance and
economics. It is not easy to get these methods right but if you do get them right
you can create a plethora of new insights into various problems.
It is also important to apply these methods with a certain deep knowledge of the respective
area under consideration, which in my view was all too often neglected over the last
few years when the main idea seemed to be that artificial intelligence would solve
all our problems without having to think about the problem area. Rather, quite the
opposite is true – if you want to get a useful solution computed by AI methods you
really need to understand the problem in detail. This is also the case why so many
companies have been frustrated by AI solutions because those simply do not solve problems
out of the box.
WVPU: in 2015 you co-authored a paper on improving election night forecasts. What
was your contribution to that paper and, perhaps more importantly, have any news networks
called you and your co-author to ask for help?
Dr. Hochreiter: This was the pet project of me and my research assistant at WU Vienna,
Christoph Waldhauser, who did his MA in Political Science but is one of the best Data
Scientists in Austria I know. Unfortunately, we never had enough time to focus on
this branch of research besides creating this paper. However, the methods published
in the paper have actually been used to improve certain election night forecasts in
Austria, but due to the new legislation which prohibits the publication of partial
results during the Election Day the methods are not applicable at the moment.
I am currently using the example of Fake News generation by Cambridge Analytica (i.e.
the Facebook scandal) to show how psychometric data can and should be integrated into
contemporary AI methods to control voting decisions of humans – of course basically
to come up with useful counteractions against Fake News. So, my interest in applying
complex algorithms to political problems has not lead to new publications yet, but
is still alive.
WVPU: What advice do you have to young researchers, particularly in the field of finance?
Dr. Hochreiter: It depends on whether you are interested in pure finance or in my
personally preferred field of algorithmic finance. If you are into pure finance, the
best strategy is to build a personal network and visit all the important finance conferences
which are mainly organized in the US. If you are into algorithmic and quantitative
finance, you’ll need to get your hands dirty by applying various methods to different
types of data sets and accomplish to fulfill the painstakingly tedious task to find
alpha in the market as opposed to doing beautiful mathematical finance proofs. There’s
plenty of opportunity for different kinds of research.
March
The business and management department’s head Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis has been invited
to guest edit a special issue of the journal Sustainability, due out later this year.
We sat down with Dr. Antonakakis to discuss the special issue’s theme: the relationship
between energy, consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and economic growth.
WVPU: Please tell us a little bit more about the special issue you will be editing.
Dr. Antonakakis: The increasing threat of global warming and climate change has been a major, worldwide,
ongoing concern for more than two decades. Global warming is being caused by the ever-increasing
concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG), as well as other anthropogenic activities.
Key factors that lead to increased GHG emissions are, among others, economic activity
and energy usage. This special issue of Sustainability will gather articles which
focus on these dynamic relationships.
WVPU: As an econometrician, how do you see the intersection of energy consumption and economic
growth?
Dr. Antonakakis: The link among energy consumption, emissions, and economic growth has received considerable
attention over the years from both policy makers and researchers, as the achievement
of both environmental sustainability and sustainable development have gradually become
major global concerns. The interest in this field has been further escalated due to
the rather intricate character of this particular nexus, both from a theoretical and
an empirical perspective. I am particularly interested in how econometric techniques
could perhaps reveal causalities and relationships which, to the naked eye, so to
speak, are less self-evident.
WVPU: Does existing literature guide research in any particular direction?
Dr. Antonakakis: The results of the existing literature are still contested, potentially due to differences
in time-periods and country-data used by researchers, varying econometric approaches,
the omitted variable bias, and many other reasons. In an ideal world, this special
issue’s articles could help us see where arguments coalesce and how they diverge.
WVPU: What has your own research suggested with regard to the relationships between and
among energy, consumption, emissions, and growth?
Dr. Antonakakis: According to the findings of a recent co-authored study of mine entitled “Energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth: An ethical dilemma” published in the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal, high levels of economic growth in the long run can only be achieved by the consumption
of the most pollutant energy resources, including oil, coal and gas. Most surprisingly,
renewable energy sources appear to have no influence on economic growth in the long-run.
This would seem to suggest that meeting both objectives — of sustainable economic
growth and sustainable environmental quality – may not be possible (at least simultaneously).
WVPU: Can researchers still submit their manuscripts, should they happen to come across
this article?
Dr. Antonakakis: Absolutely! The deadline for manuscript submissions is on May 31, 2019. They can read
about the special issue and submit their manuscript online. I’m looking forward to reading them.
January
In November the business and management department’s own Dr. Maria-Teresa Punzi traveled
to Brussels to give an invited talk at the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial
Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission. Dr. Plamen Nikolov invited her to give
the talk and present one of her recent research papers.
WVPU: Was it hard to decide which facets of your research you would present at the European
Commission?
Dr. Punzi: Initially, I wanted to present about household heterogeneity, which is a recurrent
theme in my research, but at the last moment I decided to change course and present
my work on climate change policy and environmental risk. I think that I was smart
to trust my instincts, as those present at the European Commission seemed to enjoy
the topic.
WVPU: Please tell us a little bit more about your presentation.
Dr. Punzi: To be more specific, I explained the dynamics of business cycle fluctuation by using
a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model which incorporates climate change
policy. This environmental policy is introduced in the model by assuming that the
government limits the use of polluting inputs during the production process. This
phenomenon is usually known as cap-and-trade. My model’s simulation used data from
the United States. The results suggest that this type of climate change policy (cap-and-trade) reduces
the positive effect that a technology shock would have in the economy. Moreover, some
environmental policies could lead to defaults as cap-and-trade negatively affects
the firms’ profitability and liquidity, decreasing the chance to repay back the loans
acquired to finance the new production.
WVPU: Was that all you presented in your talk?
Dr. Punzi: I also presented the results of a two-sectors model case, i.e. a green sector and
a brown sector. The two sectors differ in terms of their pollution inputs: the green
sector uses clean and renewable energy, while the brown sector use fossil fuel energy.
The climate change policy applied only to brown firms, and the model predicts that
default rates can increase for both sectors. Indeed, the environmental policy spill
over to the green sector through the banking system. Banks charge higher lending rates
to all firms in order to avoid balance sheet distress, and higher lending rates increase
the probability of default.
WVPU: Wow. That’s fascinating. What was your takeaway from a policy point of view?
Dr. Punzi: I discussed the role of monetary and macro-prudential policies. I suggested that
there should be a more active role from policy makers and financial regulators in
order to take into account the environmental risk to which the economy is exposed
during the transition period of the implementation of climate change policies.
Many economists attended my talk, even researchers working at the Climate Change Division.
These people are not focusing on business and financial cycle, but they understood
the problem in terms of banking default and financial stability.
WVPU: Some may say that your research suggests cap and trade or other environmental policies
could have short term negative effects on the banking industry or the economy as a
whole. How do you respond to that?
Dr. Punzi: Overall, my research is not meant to discourage policy makers from implementing effective
climate change policy. We all want clean air, less pollution and a better environment,
but in the transition period the economy need better policies to avoid financial instability.
Probably central banks could play a better role.
December
A recent collaboration between the business and management department’s own Dr. Maria
Madlberger and one of our graduate students, Mauro Ortiz Bustamante, culminated in
a conference publication. Mr. Ortiz Bustamante’s thesis on video advertising, “Commenting,
Liking, Sharing: Drivers of Intention to Provide User Response to Video Advertisements
in Social Media”, was supervised by Dr. Madlberger and featured at the International
Association for Development of the Information Society’s 17th International Conference
on WWW/Internet in Budapest. We sat down with Dr. Madlberger to discuss her academic
pursuits in marketing, her collaboration with Mr. Ortiz Bustamante, and the strong
interest with which students approach her about her research.
WVPU: Could you please tell us about your recent article publication on video marketing?
Dr. Madlberger:
The Internet offers an increasing variety of communication med
iums which go far beyond traditional mass communication. In recent years, social media
in particular has transformed communication among individuals, but also between companies
and their target audiences. The numerous ways by which Internet users can now create
user-generated content and social user responses, such as liking, sharing, commenting,
or uploading content has led to a paradigm shift in digital marketing. Whereas classical
communication is restricted to companies’ own communication or paid advertising, the
Internet offers a new type of communication — earned media.
This paper on video marketing addresses its potential as a form of earned media. Its
goal is the investigation of factors which drive positive user responses – including
likes, shares, and comments – to video advertisements on social media. We identified
different Internet users’ experiences – absorption, credibility, perceived length,
and perceived usefulness – as factors which influence a viewer’s attitude about a
video ad as well as that viewer’s response intention. While the paper’s findings support
the majority of the hypotheses, the impact of credibility could not be demonstrated.
With this study we were among the first who specifically investigated impact factors
which are relevant in video marketing and explicitly address users’ intention to provide
user responses on social media.
WVPU: You have involved a Webster Vienna student in this research. Could you tell us about
that?
Dr. Madlberger:
The article was a collaboration with MSc in Marketing graduate student Mauro Ortiz
Bustamante. He was writing his bachelor thesis under my supervision. Mauro’s approach
to the development of the research model and the research instrument – an online questionnaire
for a quantitative survey – was excellent, so I learned early on in our collaboration
of his potential as an academic researcher. After the finalization of his bachelor
thesis, we revised his thesis, collected more data, and submitted it to the WWW/Internet
conference where it was accepted for publication.
I am personally very happy and proud that Webster Vienna educates students who conduct
research at such a high level that the results can be published academically. This
project has turned out to be a true integration of teaching and research. I am particularly
glad to see the benefit of this project for Mauro, who gained valuable experience
and professional research skills and has made it to his first publication record already
after finishing his bachelor studies. Mauro’s passion and determination in this project
was impressive and a truly joyful experience.
I am very grateful to Mauro for the productive and delightful cooperation. This successful
project makes me aim to involve students in my future research as well.
WVPU: Your research is often related to digital marketing and e-commerce. Why are you interested
in this particular area within marketing?
Dr. Madlberger:
My research interests have always been driven by academic relevance and practical
utility. A constant factor in my research is the role of information systems in the
context of marketing management. I am convinced that an interdisciplinary view that
integrates marketing with the information systems context is necessary to provide
useful answers to up-to-date marketing concerns and challenges.
Within marketing, digitization and e-commerce enable and require innovative strategies
in order to fulfill customer expectations, maximize efficiency, and sustain competitiveness.
Nowadays, e-commerce goes far beyond online selling and advertising; it covers electronic
support of all marketing instruments and activities including marketing research and
business models.
Turning again to the integration of teaching and research, I also see the extraordinary
interest of students in the field of digital marketing. On the one hand, students
are very Internet-savvy digital natives, on the other hand, they understand the increasing
demand for competence in digital marketing management for their professional careers.
This is not only reflected in a high student engagement in the classroom, but also
in their large demand for digital marketing-related bachelor and master theses. Thus,
a synergy of my research in the digitization in marketing is the high popularity of
my research interests among students.
WVPU: Where do you think your research on the topic of your recent article will go next?
Which questions are you working on?
Dr. Madlberger:
Research on social media is in a very early stage as the number of applications and
communication features is growing more quickly than the academic understanding of
their consequences. One current issue in social media marketing is influencer marketing
where I am involved in several projects, partly in collaboration with Webster Vienna
graduate students. In this research stream, we are investigating attributes and attitudes
towards influencers – Internet users with many followers who make product recommendations
– and their impact on consumer behavior. I look forward to seeing some projects being
finalized soon and collaborating with some of the involved students on future publications.
November
Last month, Dr. Maria-Teresa Punzi took part in the 3rd Vietnam Symposium in Banking
and Finance (VSBF) in Hue city, Vietnam. In addition to her role as a speaker, she
also served as a session chair and discussant.
Webster: Tell us a little bit about the session you chaired at the conference.
Dr. Punzi: I chaired a special session on macro-financial linkages. In that session, academics
from the University of Rennes 1 (France), IPAG Business School (France), Australian
Catholic University (Australia), Beijing Normal University (China), Boston University
(United States) and Hue University (Vietnam) presented their research projects on
topics related to macro-financial linkages.
I served as the discussant for a paper by Professor Yougui Wang from Beijing Normal
University on “Alternative Decomposition of Aggregate Demand: What Underlies the Secular
Stagnation?” Dr. Wang’s paper offers a large overview of stock-flow consistency models,
which I believe will become much more prevalent in the future for explaining economic
fluctuations. I gave my comments to the authors, who hopefully found my insights constructive.
Webster: You also served as a speaker at the conference. Could you tell us about the paper
that you presented?
Dr. Punzi: I presented my research paper on “The Impact of Uncertainty on the Macro-Financial
Linkage with International Financial Exposure.” This paper develops a two-country
dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to show how different uncertainty
indexes can negatively affect the business and financial cycle where banks can borrow
in their home country and also abroad. International financial exposure is included
in the model by allowing domestic banks to buy foreign assets in a second market.
Saliently, this paper shows that macro-prudential policies are very effective in leaning
against the credit cycle when monetary policy shocks hit the economy, but they become
ineffective when the economic agents fear increasing monetary policy uncertainty,
i.e. they expect an increase in the future interest rate. This is an important message
for policy makers when setting macro-prudential policy. It is very important to understand
the nature of shocks.
Webster: What were your takeaways from the conference, Dr. Punzi?
Dr. Punzi: I really enjoyed the conference. There were speakers from Asia, Australia, Japan,
Europe and the United States. I feel I have learned so much, shared my knowledge with
many international professors, and gained many insights which will improve my current
research. Most importantly, I have developed new ideas for future research. It was
a long trip but totally worth it.
October
The business and management department’s own Dr. Pernille Eskerod’s research on the
hospitality sector, “Motivations for and Comparisons of Green Certificates within
the Hotel Industry”, was recently published in the Universal Journal of Management.
We sat down with her to discuss her latest article and her passion for eco-friendliness
in the hospitality sector.
WVPU: Could you please tell us about your most recent article publication?
Dr. Eskerod: A blooming hotel industry has the downside of an increased negative environmental
impact. At the same time, many hotel guests and employees have become conscious of
eco-friendliness and green practices. A hotel that has obtained one or more green
certificates promises green services, products, and operations, and possesses thereby
(potentially) important strategic assets, when it comes to attracting customers and
employees. As more than 100 different certifications are offered within the hotel
industry, including Green Globe and Green Key, the choice of certificate(s) is a strategic
choice for hotel management.
Both strategy and implementation are topics which are close to my heart, and I have
done considerable research on both during my academic career. In this paper, we tried
to determine similarities and differences among green certifications as well as analyze
the presence of green certificates in different regions, such as southeast Europe.
Even though many of the certifications are offered internationally, we identified
clear differences in dissemination across regions. In addition to region, our analysis
showed that belonging to a hotel chain/brand seems to be highly influential on the
choice of certificate(s).
WVPU: You have involved other members of the Webster Vienna community in this research.
Could you tell us about that?
Dr. Eskerod: The article was a collaboration with a Webster Vienna MBA student, Ms. Jovana Djuric,
whose merit-based trainee scholarship allowed her to support me in data collection
and writing up the text. We went to Serbia and Denmark to do interviews with hotel
representatives, and this was very interesting and a lot of fun. In addition, we presented
a former version of the article at a conference in Belgrade, Serbia, in Fall 2017.
In addition, an adjunct professor in the Business and Management Department, Mr. Peter
Sunley, made two interviews on behalf of us at hotels in Thailand and in the Maldives.
We exchanged ideas with him on the interview guide; this added value to our research,
and it was a pleasure to work with him.
I am happy with and thankful for both Jovana and Peter’s cooperation — and will definitely
aim to involve students and adjunct faculty in my future research as well.
WVPU: You seem to return to this topic often. What about the hospitality and hotel industries
in particular do you find so interesting?
Dr. Eskerod: The hospitality industry is one of the world’s largest and most important industries
— as well as an industry that is still developing rapidly. It's more than evident
that the extent of travels, international conferences and overnight stays have increased
significantly and will continue to rise. At the same time, it is a global industry.
I think this fits well to Webster. I therefore not only benefit from my research in
publications, but also as inputs for my teaching as all students can relate to this
industry.
WVPU: Where do you think your research on this topic will go next? Which questions are
you working on?
Dr. Eskerod: I am currently writing a conference paper with an MBA alumni, Ms. Viktoriya Onopriyenko,
for an upcoming conference in Budapest. Viktoriya wrote about impacts of green certifications
on brand image, operational efficiency and customer attraction capabilities in her
master thesis, and at an interview where I also participated we came across a new
trend within hotels, i.e. beekeeping in hotel backyards and rooftops. We thought that
this was a nice, symbolic and heart-touching activity and decided to investigate it
further. Therefore we are working on a paper called The Flowers and the Bees – Engaging
Hotel Guests in Sustainable Tourism. I am looking forward to present it for the Webster
Community at a later stage.
September
Prof. Dr. Maria Punzi, who recently joined the business and management department,
has been published in Macroeconomics Dynamics (Elsevier) and in the Handbook of Green
Finance: Energy Security and Sustainable Development (Springer). She has also been
invited to give a talk on borrowing heterogeneity at the Directorate-General for Economic
and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission this November. We asked
her about her recent research endeavors.
WVPU: Could you tell us about your most recent journal publications and your research’s
focus?
Dr. Punzi: My recent research on the relationship between unconventional monetary policy and
international housing markets was a joint project with Florian Huber from Vienna University
of Economics and Business. A primary focus of my research at the moment is Green Finance.
One of my recent articles, the “Role of bank lending in financing green projects:
a DSGE approach” will be published as a chapter of the Handbook of Green Finance:
Energy Security and Sustainable Development (Springer), sponsored by the Asian Development
Bank Institute (ADBI) in Tokyo, Japan. I presented this research last January in Kuala
Lumpur at the Conference on Energy Security sponsored by the Jeffrey Sachs Center
on Sustainable Development (JSC).
WVPU: Some of your research reflects your interest in how monetary policies affect housing
markets. Can you tell us a little more about that?
Dr. Punzi: A recent research paper of mine (“International housing markets, unconventional
monetary policy and the zero lower bound”) analyzes the relationship between unconventional
monetary policy, measured through shadow interest rates, and housing markets in the
United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and the Euro Area using a set of time-varying
parameter VAR models. The findings suggest that the monetary policy transmission mechanism
to the housing market has not changed with the implementation of quantitative easing
or forward guidance for most of the economies considered. A counterfactual exercise
provides some evidence that unconventional monetary policy has been particularly successful
in dampening the consequences of the financial crisis on housing markets in the United
States, while the effects are more muted in the remaining countries considered.
WVPU: What do you plan to discuss when you speak this November at the European Commission?
Dr. Punzi: I been invited to give a talk on Borrowing Heterogeneity at the Directorate-General
for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission. I plan to
explain the role of different types of borrowing in the mortgage market in amplifying
economic and financial fluctuations.
August
Webster Vienna students and Prof. Madlberger investigate omni-channel shopping behavior
This past spring semester, undergraduate Management students and Prof. Dr. Maria Madlberger
conducted a study about consumer behavior in one of the latest marketing trends, namely
omni-channel business.
Since the emergence of electronic commerce and digital marketing, more and more companies
have begun to recognize the importance of offering consumers online channels of distribution
and communication in addition to retail stores and classical mass media. Over the
course of the last few years, many retailers have opened online shops and become multi-channel
retailers this way; however, nowadays consumers expect more than just a choice between
physical and online stores. Young consumers, so-called digital natives, are particularly
likely to continuously switch between online and offline channels while shopping.
They want to have a shopping experience where online and offline marketing stimuli,
so-called touchpoints, are seamlessly integrated.
A comprehensive omni-channel marketing experience requires consumers to actively participate.
For example, if a retail store wants to offer its customers relevant information online
while they are in the store, customers would have to activate their GPS or Bluetooth
functions on their smart phones.
Students in Dr. Madlberger’s Marketing Research course investigated variables that
influence consumers’ omni-channel shopping behavior and willingness to meet the technical
prerequisites for omni-channel marketing activities. The sample was comprised of students
residing in Austria who were intensive Internet and mobile phone users. This also
allowed for the education level of the sample to be standardized. In the survey, study
participants were shown two omni-channel marketing scenarios. Scenario 1 was a cross-channel
scenario where an online coupon offered in the retail store can be accessed and redeemed
via a mobile phone. Scenario 2 is a same-channel scenario; here, the coupon was redeemable
via a mobile phone during a mobile purchase. For the cross-channel scenario, respondents
were asked about their intention to activate GPS or Bluetooth to make the coupon work.
For the same-channel scenario, they had to indicate their intention to download an
app to make the coupon work.
The results show that the acceptance among the surveyed students for both marketing
stimuli is high. Almost 55% are at least willing to turn on GPS/Bluetooth to use the
coupon in the cross-channel scenario. In the same-channel scenario, around 44% are
at least willing to install the app to access the coupon.
In both scenarios, attitude towards the marketing stimulus has a strong and significant
impact on behavioral intention. However, factors that influence attitude differ. In
the cross-channel scenario, the perceived service performance value, the emotional
value, and the perceived brand integration positively influence attitude whereas convenience
value does not show a significant impact. In the same-channel scenario, only service
performance value and emotional value significantly influence the attitude. The study
did not find any significant differences between men and women in respect of attitude
and behavioral intention.
The results of the study will be prepared for academic publication.
July
During the spring semester, the business and management department hosted St. Louis
adjunct instructor Dr. Michael McKinney, the recipient of the Sverdrup Fellowship.
The Sverdrup Fellowship asks awardees to work on academic research while at the host
campus. Dr. McKinney, who is familiar with how support groups for small business start-ups
function in his native St. Louis, teamed up with Webster Vienna’s own Dr. Nada Mumdziev
to research how similar groups function in Vienna. We had the opportunity to ask them
some questions about their ongoing research together before Dr. McKinney jetted back
to the United States in early May.
Webster Vienna: Dr. Mumdziev, could you briefly tell us about your research with Dr. McKinney?
Dr. Mumdziev: Upon Dr. Kinney´s arrival in Vienna, we discussed our research interests and experience
and quickly realized that they overlap, so we discussed current issues in entrepreneurship
and possible research topics, and decided to start the research project, which is
focused on understanding the outcomes of mentoring sessions between experienced business
practitioners and aspiring entrepreneurs.
Webster Vienna: Dr. McKinney, how did you first become interested in entrepreneurship and the resources
that exist for young or new entrepreneurs?
Dr. McKinney: I have many years of experience in teaching entrepreneurship, and I have worked for
many years as a mentor in St.Louis — helping young entrepreneurs to advance their
business plans. We had some very successful young firms as a result of this process.
This experience increased my interest in understanding how some aspects of the mentoring
process, such as the creation of personal relationships between the mentor and the
mentee, as well as their individual perception of the whole process, can influence
the results of mentoring.
Webster Vienna: Dr. Mumdziev, how would you explain your research to someone who doesn’t have a background
in entrepreneurship?
Dr. Mumdziev: Entrepreneurship is a wide area and includes a lot of different elements; therefore,
researching entrepreneurship can include many different disciplines. In my research,
I am interested in the external environment and the entrepreneurship ecosystem (both
institutions and individuals), and how they may affect market success or emergence
of new entrepreneurial ventures. I have been working on two projects. In the first
project I investigated crowdinvesting, which is a way of collecting funds for young
businesses through a crowdinvesting platform. I wanted to learn what influences crowdinvestors
may have on the funded start-up and what kind of social capital exists within that
network.
The second project investigated whether and how regional industrial clusters in Austria
— such as food, furniture, or automotive — affect the emergence of new start-ups.
This research led to some very interesting results; however, due to the structure
of cluster organizations and their strategic goals, a direct link with the emergence
of a new start-up in the cluster’s region could not be established. Clusters seem
to be highly important for startup firms, which find themselves in a later development
phase and already have a proven business model and tested product. Early business
ventures, however, benefit much less, and clusters are rarely a trigger for their
emergence.
Webster Vienna: Dr. McKinney, what were your takeaways from the entrepreneurship and/or start-up
scene here in Vienna? Is it comparable to St. Louis?
Dr. McKinney: Vienna has a very developed entrepreneurship scene. There are a lot of support programs
and grants offered in Vienna, and a lot is being done by the local government to establish
Vienna as a regional entrepreneurship hub. In comparison to St. Louis, however, the
investor community in general and the business angel community in particular is less
developed, but that seems to be characteristic of not only the entrepreneurship ecosystem
in Vienna, but also of many other European countries. There is a lack of venture capital,
but I am sure that it will change in the future. Conversely, Vienna is investing a
lot in R&D and tech startups, which is a great way to go. I learned about some great
and innovative incubator programs and they seem to have great success in supporting
the emergence of successful start-ups.
Webster Vienna: You have been studying the start-up environment in Vienna for a while. How has it
changed? How do you envision that it will change in the future?
Dr. Mumdziev: I agree with the observations of Dr. Mckinney regarding some characteristics and issues
of the ecosystem In Vienna. In addition to that, I think that entrepreneurship education
is one of the important enabling factors which would increase entrepreneurial activity
and additionally encourage those who are young and innovative to take the entrepreneurial
path. There are few very good and successful extra-curricular entrepreneurship programs.
For instance, Webster Vienna offers the Entrepreneurship Certificate program. There
is also the Entrepreneurship Avenue program which connects several universities in
Vienna and takes place once a year. You also have a number of good university-related
incubators.
Other than that, I think that Vienna is on a great path to become an important hub
of the region, as many governmental and private programs and initiatives contribute
to the success and work together. Access to funding should also improve in the future.
For example, Austria currently has one of the best legal frameworks for crowdinvesting,
which is already a great step forward. I think that the perception of entrepreneurship
within society is also changing. All of that will certainly result in an increase
of both local and international start-ups in Vienna and in a vibrant entrepreneurial
scene. So, I am sure that Vienna will be an important “entrepreneurship destination”
in the future.
May
Webster Vienna Professor’s Book Out Now
Recently, business and management department’s own Dr. Menbere Workie Tiruneh’s book
"Overshooting the Maastricht Criteria: External Imbalances and Income Convergence
in the European Union" was made available for purchase by Nova Science Publishers
in New York. We sat down with Dr. Workie to discuss his research on the European Union
and the Great Recession.
Webster Vienna: How did the economic underpinnings of the European Union become a central part of
your academic research? What do you find so interesting about it?
Dr. Workie: A simple answer would be that I obtained my graduate and doctorate studies in Europe
and have been living in Europe for a long time. This wouldn’t be enough to develop
a research interest though. I have witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as
the transformation of Europe with remarkable achievements, such as the creation of
the European Union and the Economic and Monetary Union. In my understanding this was
both a political achievement that has significantly reduced regional tensions as well
as an economic one in response to the globalization of the world economy. It was particularly
very interesting to observe and investigate the challenges of Central and Eastern
European countries (former communist countries) to adopt policies in order to get
the letter of invitation to join the European Union. In my view most of these countries
would have been far less developed by now without the incentives to join the EU. Regional,
cohesion and structural funds have also played a pivotal role in reducing income disparities
across countries. Nevertheless, regional disparity within countries remains a persistent
policy challenge for most of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
Webster Vienna: Can you tell us a little more about your book project? How would you explain your
research to someone who doesn’t have a background in economic policy?
Dr. Workie: I guess every rational person understands what it takes to have bank loans which far
exceed someone’s income. This holds true for a government as well: if a government
spends more than its income, then sooner or later this would backfire. The bad thing
about over borrowing is that interest rates are an increasing function of the level
of debt. The higher the level of debt, the higher the interest rates. We have witnessed
this numerous times in history. In this respect, my book discusses theoretical frameworks
of global imbalances as well as systematically evaluates paradigm shifts in these
imbalances in the past four decades or so. It also brings state-of-the- art empirical
explorations on determinants of external imbalances with particular emphasis on optimal
size of public debt in the European Union. The book also discusses policy dilemmas
in an attempt to reduce future possible challenges for the European Union.
Webster Vienna: What is your verdict about the direction of economic policy and the European Union?
Are you more hopeful or more doubtful about the future?
Dr. Workie: Europe has been at peace for a fairly sustainable period, which is considered as one
of the outcomes of European integration. I would leave this for political scientists
to offer more qualified assessments. On the economic front European economies have
undoubtedly benefited from free movement of goods and services as well as investments
in the last two decades. There was undeniable achievement in real income convergence,
where poorer members of the European Union having significantly higher real income
per capita growth for the past two decades or so. There are also challenges about
the vulnerability of the current European arrangement as was disclosed during the
Great Recession. Some countries are falling behind in terms of undertaking structural
reforms to be more resilient when difficult times come. This of course created tensions
in the European Union and there are various policies that have been discussed as how
to reduce possible future challenges. A lot has been achieved about regulation of
the financial system including the banking industry. There are still pending issues
such as migration and coping with the consequences of Brexit. In my view there are
not too many better options for the EU in spite of numerous challenges to the current
arrangement. I am cautiously optimistic about the future of the European Union.
Webster Vienna: Which resources do you use to locate reliable data for your research?
Dr. Workie: I regularly use the Eurostat database, the Ameco database of the European Commission,
OECD database, the World Bank database, the World Economic Outlook compiled by the
International Monetary Fund, the Penn World Tables, the Groningen database, etc.
Webster Vienna: What recommendations do you have for a student who is interested in studying the economics
of the European Union?
Dr. Workie: The EU is a very interesting and dynamic political, social and economic environment
that is still in the making and there are plenty of issues that emerge and are tackled
using a sort of “trial and error” approach. There are numerous success stories but
also challenges and open issues subject to research. The EU is also the second largest
economy in the world with job opportunities and I would encourage both our European
and international students to focus their research on European issues, European companies,
industries and institutions.
Book Description (from Nova): While mainstream economists were convinced they had solved the business cycle phenomena
of macroeconomic policy making, the Great Recession has once again underscored the
verdict of history, where every boom has almost always been accompanied by a bust
and recession. The book discusses theoretical controversies and state-of-the art empirical
studies on the link between external imbalances and real income convergence in the
European Union. The book shows successful real income convergence across the European
Union on the country level and pinpoints persistent regional disparities within countries
in most of the member states of the European Union. The book addresses broader aspects
of external imbalances and their key determinants and provides fresh empirical and
exploratory evidence on paradigm shifts in the past several decades. This book also
empirically estimates both the causality between public debt and economic growth as
well as the optimum level of public debt for EU member states. Additionally, the book
discusses the link between illicit capital flows and external imbalances in the European
Union. Overall, the book critically investigates both theoretical frameworks of global
imbalances and systematically evaluates milestones and paradigm shifts in global imbalances;
it also offers new empirical results based on the panel data of both “old” and “new”
EU member states in the past several decades. Finally, the book addresses a number
of policy challenges, disputes and controversies in the European Union in terms of
solving the ongoing external imbalances and harmonizing policies to prevent future
challenges. (Nova)
April
Industry Clusters: Start-Up Catalyst?
Do industry clusters have a positive effect on the emergence of new start-ups in Austria?
Our Dr. Nada Mumdziev investigates.
A business cluster is a regional concentration of interrelated businesses, suppliers,
and associated institutions in a particular field, and they can be socio-economic
engines of competitiveness and growth. Clusters are known to have positive effects
on businesses’ competitiveness and performance because they can promote knowledge
spill-overs, information-sharing, access to customers and partners, a favorable business
environment, and stronger competition.
However, one important question emerges: Can clusters affect the emergence of new
start-ups and contribute to their survival and success?
A research project conducted by Dr. Nada Mumdziev at Webster Vienna in cooperation
with Prof. Dr. Pablo Collazzo (WU Vienna) addressed this important question. The empirical
data was collected in Austria through extensive interviews with 23 representatives
of Austrian clusters and regional incubators.
Takeaways from the Research
Dr. Mumdziev and Dr. Collazzo’s research on local clusters found that clusters have
a different purpose in each phase of a start-up. The phases below are based upon the
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor framework.
Start-up Conception Phase: Clusters can be a valuable source of insider information about market needs, can
open up niches of specialization, and even present new market opportunities; however,
clusters play only a minor role in this phase. Our empirical evidence indicates that
clusters rarely see start-up firms emerging within their structures. This is primarily
because cluster programs and activities focus on supporting established businesses,
and they tend to lack infrastructure and resources to work with entrepreneurs during
the conceptual phase.
New Firm Phase: In this young phase, from a company’s foundation until about the third year, clusters
can bring tremendous value. Networking opportunities, access to customers and partners,
as well as contacts to established market players are just some of the benefits pointed
out by the interviewees. Clusters can, and should, play an important role in this
phase and help young companies survive.
Established Firm Phase: The core function of clusters is to support established businesses’ growth and competitiveness.
Access to customers and partners; fostering of a competitive climate, and coordination
of innovation projects are just some of the activities. It seems that the effect of
clusters is the strongest when start-ups reach this stage. However, experts point
to group-think, lack of the “outside-of-the-cluster” perspective and lack of agility,
as some of the pitfalls. This can reflect negatively on competitiveness and innovativeness
of businesses.
Conclusion
So, how could a cluster’s potential be best harnessed to help start-ups emerge?
A straightforward solution would be to build up resources and capabilities of cluster
organizations very similar to incubators, which are companies which help new startups
to develop. This would be an unnecessary duplication of efforts, though. Cluster organizations
could, however, develop much closer collaborations with existing incubators. As suggested
by the collected data, a way of fostering new start-up creation could be virtual clusters,
which stretch beyond boundaries of a single cluster and connect firms across different
clusters, as well as incubators and universities within a network’s joint projects.
In this way, incubators, often the initial physical location for many start-ups, would
retain their important role, but would get access to information and opportunities
inherent within clusters. The agility of a start-up paired with a larger company could
potentially add value, so together it would be a win-win situation.
March
Webster Research Featured in Acclaimed German Novel Die Hauptstadt
Recently, business and management department head Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis’ research
on the impact of economic austerity on suicide rates was referenced in the much-acclaimed
German language novel Die Hauptstadt, written by Vienna-native Robert Menasse, and
winner of the German Book Prize (Deutscher Buchpreis) in 2017.
Webster Vienna: How did you find out that your research had been referenced?
Dr. Antonakakis: A colleague contacted me to tell me she had been reading the novel in her free time
when she stumbled upon the reference. Even though my name isn’t mentioned explicitly,
she could tell from the context that the Webster Vienna Private University study in
question was research I had conducted in collaboration with Prof. Alan Collins (Nottingham
Trent University and University of Portsmouth) about suicide rates.
Webster Vienna: Can you tell us a little more about the research that was mentioned in the novel?
Dr. Antonakakis: Following the austerity measures introduced in Greece and other southern Eurozone
countries, there was a remarkable increase in suicide rates in those countries, which
motivated us to conduct scientific research on the relationship between fiscal austerity
and suicide mortality in these countries. Together with my co-author, Prof. Alan Collins,
we published two studies in that area, one focusing in on Greece and the second including
Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. After controlling for several common socioeconomic
determinants of suicide mortality, such as unemployment, income, fertility rates,
divorce rates and alcohol consumption, we found the impact of fiscal austerity on
suicide mortality to be gender-, age- and time-specific, and robust to alternative
proxies of fiscal austerity. In particular, we found fiscal austerity to be associated
with increased suicides rates on the male population in the 65-89 age group, while
the female population seemed to be resilient to fiscal austerity measures.
Webster Vienna: Your research was picked up by several media outlets upon its release. Why do you
think that happened?
Dr. Antonakakis: The results of our research generated a lot of media attention because of the substantial
implications for policymakers and health agencies. Our research highlighted the health
costs of austerity, in contrast to the well-established economic costs, and also offered
some guidance on the demographic targeting of suicide prevention measures. Our research
also showed that improving labor market institutions can help mitigate the negative
effects of fiscal austerity on suicide mortality. Overall, our results advocated a
paradigm shift in political economy to set a new course of policy development where
markets and profits are explicitly means to human ends and not the other way around.
That is, placing health before wealth.
Webster Vienna: Where in the novel is your study mentioned?
Dr. Antonakakis: You can find the reference to Webster Vienna and my research on pages 255-256 of Die
Hauptstadt. Mr. Menasse’s novel is a satirical commentary about the workings of the
European Union, and in this particular scene a bureaucrat divulges how he has lost
confidence in his work after seeing the study. You can purchase the book online to
read more.
Suicide rates in Greece (and other European countries) have been on a remarkable upward
trend following the global recession of 2008 and the European sovereign debt crisis
of 2009. However, recent investigations of the impact on Greek suicide rates from
the 2008 financial crisis have restricted themselves to simple descriptive or correlation
analyses. Controlling for various socio–economic effects, this study presents a statistically
robust model to explain the influence on realized suicidality of the application of
fiscal austerity measures and variations in macroeconomic performance over the period
1968–2011. The responsiveness of suicide to levels of fiscal austerity is established
as a means of providing policy guidance on the extent of suicide behavior associated
with different fiscal austerity measures. The results suggest (i) significant age
and gender specificity in these effects on suicide rates and that (ii) remittances
have suicide-reducing effects on the youth and female population. These empirical
regularities potentially offer some guidance on the demographic targeting of suicide
prevention measures and the case for ‘economic’ migration.
While linkages between some macroeconomic phenomena and suicides in some countries
have been explored, only two studies, hitherto, have established a causal relationship
between fiscal austerity and suicide, albeit in a single country. The aim of this
study is to provide the first systematic multiple–country evidence of a causal relationship
of fiscal austerity on time–, gender–, and age–specific suicide mortality across five
Eurozone peripheral countries, namely Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain over
the period 1968–2012, while controlling for various socioeconomic differences. The
impact of fiscal adjustments is found to be gender–, age– and time–specific. Specifically,
fiscal austerity has short–, medium– and long–run suicide increasing effects on the
male population in the 65–89 age group. A 1% reduction in government spending is associated
with a 1.38%, 2.42% and 3.32% increase in the short–, medium– and long–run, respectively,
of male suicides rates in the 65–89 age group in the Eurozone periphery. These results
are highly robust to alternative measures of fiscal austerity. Improved labor market
institutions help mitigate the negative effects of fiscal austerity on suicide mortality.
February
Prof. Dr. Pernille Eskerod, together with Karyne Ang of the University of Technology
Sydney and Erling S. Andersen of the BI Norwegian Business School, conducted a study
on (1) stakeholder value constructs in megaprojects, and (2) project opportunity exploitation
in megaprojects. Both studies were based on the same in-depth case study.
Megaprojects consume numerous resources and impact numerous people. Those affected
can even span generations. Therefore, it is important that megaprojects bring considerable
value to both their initiators and other stakeholders. Instead of “just” bringing
what has been accepted as “good enough” in a business case analysis at the project’s
conception, megaprojects can potentially bring more value than expected if opportunities
are identified and exploited. This can happen if a megaproject is used in a way that
differs from its intended purpose(s) or by initially-unintended stakeholder groups.
A single case study of an infrastructure megaproject, i.e. the construction and operation
of a 50+ year-old American bridge (Astoria-Megler Bridge, crossing Columbia River
between Oregon and Washington states) was undertaken. The data consisted of 14 interviews,
online videos of speeches, newspaper articles, books, historical documents, website
texts, and photographs. Some of the interviewees were related family members (i.e.,
parents and son, father and daughter), thus accounting for subsequent generations
being involved in construction of the bridge. In addition, Dr. Eskerod made on-site
observations during a six-day stay in a hotel in Astoria, close to the bridge.
In the first study, ways to understand, classify, and express megaproject stakeholder
value were identified. The research links different stakeholder types to types of
value constructs. Knowing which types of value constructs matter to different stakeholder
types can potentially help project representatives communicate more efficiently and
effectively.
The second study shows that project opportunity exploitation can be enhanced by:
encouraging and accepting the involvement of many categories of stakeholders that
can take advantage the project for their own purposes;
enhancing that stakeholders are proud of the project, and thereby will engage in or
even initiate activities that are generating further benefits to themselves and/or
others;
realizing that project opportunities may materialize after a long time (e.g. the bridge’s
50 year anniversary); and
celebrating achievements of the project and thereby stimulating stakeholders to exploit
the opportunities created by the project, which will contribute to further benefits
of the project.
The studies were presented at international conferences, i.e. IRNOP 2017 in Boston and EURAM 2017 in Glasgow, both in June 2017.
You can read more about the research in the articles below:
Eskerod, P., Ang, K. & Andersen, E.S. (2018). Increasing Project Benefits by Project
Opportunity Exploitation, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business,
11(1). (will be published soon)
Astoria Bridge in 2009, Photo courtesy of Ron Reiring (Creative Commons Attribution
2.0, 2017)
January
Prof. Dr. Maria Madlberger, together with Dr. Jasmina Dlačić and Maja Stipetic from
the University of Rijeka, conducted a study on gamification in the tourism sector.
The research investigates how gamification, specifically advergames, can impact consumer
behavior toward and cognition of tourism destinations.
Gamification is gaining in popularity among advertisers to support marketing and promotional
activities. The use of game design elements can be an effective means of engaging
users in non-gaming contexts, such as learning, business, or at work. Particularly
advergames, in which a game’s premise is built around the product being advertised,
are seen as a both promising and innovative advertising instrument. Advergames are
serious games, that is, games whose purpose is not entertainment, but instead to serve
a specific purpose, such as promoting a product or raising brand awareness.
The research team explored how an advergame can influence consumer attitude and behavioral
intention through the ACB (affect, behavior, cognition) model of attitudes by investigating
users’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to tourism destinations that
appear in an advergame. For this purpose, the researchers conducted a qualitative
study with in-depth interviews among 16 non-Austrian participants from eleven countries.
The study involved the advergame "Austria Snapshot Adventure" that has been launched
by the Austrian National Tourist Office to promote the tourist destinations Vienna,
Salzburg, and Tyrol.
The study shows that advergames can be effective in increasing users’ awareness and
other cognitive performances as well as stimulating positive feelings such as fun
and curiosity. Furthermore, depending on prior knowledge, the advergame can foster
players’ intention to visit the destinations that appear in the game. The results
showcase the potential but also the limitations of advergames in attitude formation
as well as important human-computer interaction issues such as interactivity and difficulty
level of the game.
The study by Dr. Madlberger, Dr. Dlačić, and Ms. Stipetic will be presented at the
upcoming Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik (MKWI), which will be held in March
2018 in Lüneburg, Germany.
December
Green Certifications within the Hotel Industry
Prof. Dr. Pernille Eskerod and trainee scholar and MBA student Ms. Jovana Djuric,
from Webster Vienna’s business and management department, are undertaking research
on green certifications within the hotel industry. The research concerns how hotels
participate in third-party green certification programs in order to minimize their
environmental footprint and to attract environmentally-conscious customers and employees.
A blooming hotel industry has the downside of an increased negative environmental
impact. At the same time, many hotel guests and employees have become conscious of
eco-friendliness and green practices. In addition, 2017 has been declared by the United
Nations as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. A particular
emphasis has been place on resource efficiency and environmental protection.
A hotel that has green certification(s) promises more green services, products, and
operations, and therefore may potentially possesses an important strategic asset when
it comes to attracting customers and employees. Many green certifications are offered
within the hotel industry, such as the Green Globe and Green Key certifications. Choosing
which certificate(s) to pursue becomes a strategic choice for hotel management.
Dr. Eskerod and Ms. Djuric are examining green certifications in order to determine
similarities and differences among them. As part of the research, they are analyzing
certificate usage in different regions of the world. Even though many of the certifications
are offered internationally, clear differences in dissemination across regions have
been identified. In addition to region, belonging to a hotel chain or brand seems
to highly influence which certificate(s) are sought.
The researchers have conducted interviews on green practices and certifications in
both Serbia and Denmark. In Serbia, the interviews took place at Hotel Prag and Radisson
Blu Old Mill Hotel, both in Belgrade, which are among the country’s leading business
hotels. Hotel Prag has been certified by the ISO 14001 standard on Environmental Management,
whereas Radisson Blu Old Mill Hotel was the first hotel in Serbia to be Green Key
certified. Additionally, it received a sustainability award from the Serbian Chamber
of Commerce in Sept. 2017.
In Denmark, interviews were conducted with the Deputy CEO for Foundation for Environmental
Education, who is also the director of the International Green Key Program. An International
Green Key Assistant and a trainee took also part in the interview. Further, Eskerod
and Djuric interviewed the Danish Green Key national coordinator as well as the PR
and Communication manager of a boutique hotel in Denmark. This hotel is one of the
front runners, nationally and internationally, when it comes to green practices.
The two researchers presented their preliminary results at the 3rd International Tourism
and Hospitality Management Conference, which was held in Belgrade, Serbia, in Sept.
2017.
November
Policy-related economic uncertainty puts US males at suicide risk
Younger and older males in the United States of America are more likely to commit
suicide at times of increased policy-related economic uncertainty, according to new
research from Webster Vienna Private University, the University of Portsmouth, and
the University of Pretoria. The female population across all ages was found to be
resilient to policy-related economic uncertainty.
The researchers recommend that the US government adopts a two-pronged approach. Information
for the general public must communicate that the government is working hard to minimise
uncertainty. As some in the population are at risk, particularly younger and older
males, government should also ensure that counselling services are available for vulnerable
people.
The researchers investigated suicide mortality in the United States over the period
1950-2013, taking account of other socioeconomic factors that influence suicide mortality.
While it has long been recognized that periods of economic uncertainty, characterised
by increased unemployment and lower economic activity, are associated with increased
suicide rates, this research is the first to examine the impact of policy-related
economic uncertainty on suicide mortality.
Dr Nikolaos Antonakakis, Associate Professor at Webster Vienna Private University
and Visiting Fellow at the University of Portsmouth's Business School, said:
“Our results have important policy implications for the US government.
“Economic uncertainty is unavoidable. As our results show, it is higher uncertainty
that tends to cause increases in suicide rates, but lower uncertainty does not necessarily
reduce suicide rates. So, government must work to ensure that extreme increases in
uncertainty are avoided.
“At times of uncertainty, this means the government must not only ensure that it is
making strong efforts to ensure lower levels of uncertainty. It must also actively
and clearly communicate this in information for the public generally, particularly
to younger and older males.
“At the same time, the US government should also ensure that appropriate counselling
services are available for vulnerable people, and also communicate this clearly.
“The bottom line of our analysis is that uncertainty should be kept within bounds
and attempts to do so must be well-publicized. Of course, at the same time, the importance
of other predictors in affecting suicide rates like unemployment and growth slowdown
cannot be ignored, but these variables are likely to improve with reduction in economic
policy uncertainty.”
Last year the business and management department launched an ongoing Research Seminar
series, allowing students to hear firsthand about ongoing research projects conducted
by our department faculty. The primary goals of this series are for students to be
exposed to the common stages and methods of academic research and apply those to their
own thesis projects. Both undergraduate and graduate students are highly encouraged
to attend.
Recent research seminars have focused on topics as varied as the relationship between
crime rates and gambling in Slovakia, the stimuli behind the growth of mobile phone
commerce, and the benefits of investing in information and communication technology.
Our seminar, hosted by Dr. Ioannis Chatziantoniou Ioannis, explores the initial idea,
theoretical background, hypothesis, research methods, and findings of a study on UK
housing prices that he conducted in tandem with Webster’s own Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis
and Mr. David Gabauer.
